Wayne White

StatementCVExhibitionsPress

Wayne White’s work is humorous, unpredictable and irreverent, offering playful swipes and jabs at contemporary culture and our own insecurities. He rescues bland thrift-store landscapes by adding satirical yet honest and uniquely American pronouncements, often poking fun at the seriousness of the art world, writ large in colorful block letters. White, a successful stage, set and prop designer and Emmy-winning co-creator of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, as well as music videos for Peter Gabriel and Smashing Pumpkins, invites us into his world usurping the gallery space as yet another venue for the display and realization of his ideas.

White, the subject of the 2012 documentary “Beauty is Embarrassing,” is portrayed as an inspirational figure and “hard-working rebel” rather than tragic artist hero. He recently had his first solo museum exhibition at the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, creating a large site-specific installation complete with puppets operated at selected times through the run of the exhibition.

His paintings can be found in numerous private collections, as well as in the New Museum of Contemporary Art in NY, the Detroit Institute for Art and the Weisman Art Foundation. Wayne White lives and works in Los Angeles.

Wayne White; Dick Jokes from Sherman Oaks, 2008; acrylic on offset lithograph; 19 x 40 in.
Wayne White; All an Act, 2005; acrylic on offset lithograph; 18 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.
Wayne White; Wash Me, 2001; acrylic on offset lithograph; 32 1/2 x 56 in.
Wayne White; Huckleberry, 2013; acrylic on offset lithograph; 29 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.
Wayne White; But it is and I am So They Wont, 2007; acrylic on offset lithograph; 23 x 43 in.
Wayne White; DORKUS, 2009; acrylic on offset lithograph; 29 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.
Wayne White; DUNNO, 2013; acrylic on offset lithograph; 25 1/2 x 45 1/2 in.
Wayne White; SEE DO, 2013; acrylic on offset lithograph; 26.75 x 39 in.
Wayne White; UH HUH, 2013; acrylic on offset lithograph; 25 x 31.5 in.
Wayne White; DINO, 2007; acrylic on offset lithograph; 29 x 41 in.
Wayne White; SITTIN ROUND DRUNK IN HOUSTON, 2013; acrylic on offset lithograph; 28 x 52 in.
Wayne White; TOOK THE BAD ACID BY THE RIVER, 2013; acrylic on offset lithograph; 33 x 66 in.
Wayne White; Famous n' Mopey, 2013; acrylic on offset lithograph; 29 x 45.5 in.