Jeans were invented for the Gold Rush and have found a home in nearly every American era since. By utilizing men’s jeans, long a symbol of American ruggedness and authenticity, White subverts traditional notions of masculinity by recycling the material into two denim heart sculptures. Once rugged and plain, the jeans are transformed into objects that are soft, splattered and nuanced.

Three sculptures made from shiny black dibond punctuate the gallery and further White’s use of optimistic symbolism as talisman. Pixel Heart (Keep on Truckin’) riffs on the famous R. Crumb series, in which men are depicted confidently striding through the world; Double Rainbow stacks two rainbows in a totem as a take on the “Rainbow Man” petroglyph in Barrier Canyon, Utah; and a corner rainbow draws attention to where the wall’s edge meets the floor, creating a new horizon for the viewer.

While the paintings are eye catching and the sculptures feature familiar symbols, White’s world is not without conflict, thus mirroring our own. The myth of American escapism and the enduring draw of the open road are forever linked with our dependence on the oil and gas industry. Happiness comes at a cost, and progress is never a promise. The pendulum swings. The works in Oil Slicks all contain and utilize this dichotomy. Just as in nature, a rainbow is a full circle, but one can only see what’s above the horizon.