James White
13 Nov - 18 Dec 2009
3 am (New York hotel) 2009
Oil and varnish on birch-ply in perspex boxframe
100 x 133 cm (unframed); 103,3 x 136,3 cm (framed)
Oil and varnish on birch-ply in perspex boxframe
100 x 133 cm (unframed); 103,3 x 136,3 cm (framed)
James White
Back to Zero
Opening: November 13, 2009
Exhibition duration: November 13–December 18, 2009
c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner is very pleased to announce the second solo exhibition of British artist James White.
With ‘Back to Zero’, James White presents two new series of his paintings on wood, continuing his ongoing cataloguing of the minutiae of modern life. Here, he depicts interior snapshots with the kind of arbitrary compositions that might result from a shutter released accidentally. In this group of small scale paintings the images are taken from hotel rooms and other unspecified places and are characteristically devoid of colour.
Of the five larger works in the exhibition three are 'Hotel' paintings. In Back to Zero from which the exhibition takes it's name, a black can of Coca-Cola zero sits centre stage on a hotel room tabletop amongst scraps of paper, headache tablets and the contents of emptied pockets. The title of the work refers directly, of course, to the can of soft drink on the table but also implies an inevitable return to nothing. In 4.01 am (Dallas hotel) and 3 am (New York hotel) we see the random collection of objects usually found on bedside tables – a bottle of water, a telephone, a book, a wristwatch and, as is often the case in White's paintings from hotels, the images are captured in the dead of night. Many of the paintings are cropped awkwardly and both The Sink and Indoor Nature exemplify the arbitrary nature of White's vantage point. Given over to a more interactive perspective, the work is not purely observational, but implicates the artist within the situation.
In these paintings, White refuses to acknowledge a wider visual world. The second group of smaller works underlines this quality, for they extract themselves from the outside world through an exacting focus on only one or very few objects: a broken wineglass, a broom propped up in the corner of a room, a half-drunk glass of milk or the panel of a hospital room’s ceiling.
White’s scenes, first connected to photography, later become translated with meticulous precision into monochrome paintings. This extensive concentration on the motif ultimately enables other, multi-layered perspectives. The artist quietly contemplates the overlooked but as well as focusing his gaze on the beauty found in the banality of things, he instills an empty loneliness – a nostalgic black and white desolation. These intimate groupings of objects form the evidence of a life being lived and with each work, James White marks the passage of time.
James White (b. 1967, Devon, UK) studied at the Royal College of Art. He lives and works in London. Next year, James White’s works will be included in the exhibition, “Realism – The Adventure of Reality” in the Kunsthalle Emden (January 23–May 24, 2010), as well as at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturestifung in Munich
(June 11–September 5, 2010).
For further information or visuals please contact Maike Fries,
c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner: T: +49-30-69 51 83 41, F: +49-30-69 51 83 42,
E: office@gerhardsengerner.com or visit our website at http://www.gerhardsengerner.com
Back to Zero
Opening: November 13, 2009
Exhibition duration: November 13–December 18, 2009
c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner is very pleased to announce the second solo exhibition of British artist James White.
With ‘Back to Zero’, James White presents two new series of his paintings on wood, continuing his ongoing cataloguing of the minutiae of modern life. Here, he depicts interior snapshots with the kind of arbitrary compositions that might result from a shutter released accidentally. In this group of small scale paintings the images are taken from hotel rooms and other unspecified places and are characteristically devoid of colour.
Of the five larger works in the exhibition three are 'Hotel' paintings. In Back to Zero from which the exhibition takes it's name, a black can of Coca-Cola zero sits centre stage on a hotel room tabletop amongst scraps of paper, headache tablets and the contents of emptied pockets. The title of the work refers directly, of course, to the can of soft drink on the table but also implies an inevitable return to nothing. In 4.01 am (Dallas hotel) and 3 am (New York hotel) we see the random collection of objects usually found on bedside tables – a bottle of water, a telephone, a book, a wristwatch and, as is often the case in White's paintings from hotels, the images are captured in the dead of night. Many of the paintings are cropped awkwardly and both The Sink and Indoor Nature exemplify the arbitrary nature of White's vantage point. Given over to a more interactive perspective, the work is not purely observational, but implicates the artist within the situation.
In these paintings, White refuses to acknowledge a wider visual world. The second group of smaller works underlines this quality, for they extract themselves from the outside world through an exacting focus on only one or very few objects: a broken wineglass, a broom propped up in the corner of a room, a half-drunk glass of milk or the panel of a hospital room’s ceiling.
White’s scenes, first connected to photography, later become translated with meticulous precision into monochrome paintings. This extensive concentration on the motif ultimately enables other, multi-layered perspectives. The artist quietly contemplates the overlooked but as well as focusing his gaze on the beauty found in the banality of things, he instills an empty loneliness – a nostalgic black and white desolation. These intimate groupings of objects form the evidence of a life being lived and with each work, James White marks the passage of time.
James White (b. 1967, Devon, UK) studied at the Royal College of Art. He lives and works in London. Next year, James White’s works will be included in the exhibition, “Realism – The Adventure of Reality” in the Kunsthalle Emden (January 23–May 24, 2010), as well as at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturestifung in Munich
(June 11–September 5, 2010).
For further information or visuals please contact Maike Fries,
c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner: T: +49-30-69 51 83 41, F: +49-30-69 51 83 42,
E: office@gerhardsengerner.com or visit our website at http://www.gerhardsengerner.com