A PROCESS SERIES II
WENDY WHITE
BAHAREH KHOSHOOEE
Organized by Jessamyn Fiore
February 2–April 2, 2017
For immediate release:
Rawson Projects is very excited to announce the second iteration of A Process Series, a sequence of mini solo exhibitions that invites each artist to transform the gallery space in order to present and explore the inspiration behind their most recent work.
A Process Series II invites four female artists to reflect on how politics influences their artistic practice. Each comes from a different background and works in a different medium, but all use their artistic voice to explore our contemporary political reality from their own unique perspective.
In the urgency of this current political climate Rawson Projects asks simply “what is inspiring you now?” and then gives these four artists a carte blanche gallery space in which to reply. Encouraging experimentation in medium specificity and audience engagement, this two month program opens up a conversation around creative influence, politics and identity: What is the artist’s role at this moment in addressing contemporary events? Is a politically engaged artistic process equal to art activism or is it an inherent feature in any significant contemporary art practice? How does art stay relevant and necessary in an extreme political reality?
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Wendy White: JEANS
Reception for the artist: Friday, March 3 from 6–8 PM
March 3–19, 2017
From March 3 to 19, Wendy White will present a site-specific installation entitled JEANS.
Artist statement:
The kind of jeans you wear visually defines your age, personality, and subculture, whether you like it or not. In a hyper-partisan climate, the kind of cigarettes you smoke broadcasts your political affiliation. The right’s assault on political correctness included overt reference to skinny jeans while distressed denim surged in popularity as perhaps a signifier of authenticity. Historically, Republican presidents wore jeans in an attempt to relate to the working class. Jimmy Carter literally defined his campaign on them. Reagan and GWB wore boot-cut, Texas-style jeans with ample room. When Obama threw out the first pitch for the 2009 All Star Game in dad jeans, he earned years of ridicule, and Mitt Romney’s high-waisted, light wash denim quickly became meme fodder. Bill Clinton in jeans was, to the GOP, the definition of subversion. In an installation of floor-to-ceiling denim with pockets containing everything from Marlboro Reds to 5-hour Energy, a series of distorted black and white photographs scrawled with text, and a group of Vice Chandeliers comprising cigarettes, smiley faces and Big Gulps, this installation explores the mythology and branding embedded in America’s most storied fashion innovation.
Wendy White was born in Deep River, Connecticut, and lives and works in New York City. This spring, White will mount a solo exhibition at VAN HORN (Düsseldorf) and recently had a two-person show with Justin Adian at CAPITAL (San Francisco). Selected past solo shows include Eric Firestone Loft (New York), Jablonka Maruani Mercier (Brussels), Galerie Jérôme Pauchant (Paris), David Castillo Gallery (Miami), Andrew Rafacz (Chicago), and Leo Koenig (New York). White has mounted a two-person show, Performing Painting, with José Parlá at Savannah College of Art and Design and has been included in group shows at LACMA (Los Angeles), M Woods (Beijing), Museum of Fine Arts (Gifu), Royal Swedish Academy of Art (Stockholm), Sotheby’s S|2 (New York), Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (Indianapolis), and CCA Andraxt (Mallorca). She has been featured in The New York Times, Artforum, Time Out New York, Artnet, Forbes, Art in America, New York Magazine, Modern Painters and Bomb Magazine.
For more information please contact the gallery at info@rawsonprojects.com or call 212 256 0379