Wayne White
June 1, 2006For the past several years, Los Angeles based artist Wayne White has been picking up old landscape paintings, complete with their beat-up frames, and painting giant seemingly abstract words on them as though they were part of the original scenery. The words have a shiny plastic surface to them, and they cast shadows, reflect & reflect upon the full surface of their surroundings in the original landscape. Over time, White's art has evolved from simple examples like this or this to much more complex, multi-frame images. At first, the words began to curve, and then the letters took on unique shapes. Finally, the sentences grew longer & more unwieldly. Ironically, as his stuff got more popular, and much more expensive (recent pieces go for $15,000 and up), I've liked the actual art less & less. The simple early versions seem most compelling; once the letters distort & warp illegibily, they might as well be abstract art.
