July 11 - Sept 26, 2021
Museum Goch, Germany
"...even White’s most abstract works evidence their affinity with the impulse to customize a readymade, standard model found in American car culture. In this case, it is the readymade format of the rectangular canvas tableau that she accepts as a basis for further styling, accessorizing, and performance enhancement... not to mention the more radical transformations such as swapping out printed photographic imagery on neoprene for paint on canvas, or transforming the image into a planar sculptural object hanging from the ceiling rather than against a wall." —excerpt from the catalogue essay by Barry Schwabsky
Museum Goch presents Wendy White's first solo museum exhibition. Opening 11 July, 2021 / Until 26 September, 2021. Comprising works from 2011 to 2019, the exhibition will include painting, sculpture, and site-specific installation.Wendy White’s works are in many ways a permanent exploration and expansion of the possibilities of traditional canvas painting. This concerns the materials she uses, such as plexiglas panes and frames made especially for the artist from PVC or wood. The artist chooses forms of presentation that deviate from classical forms. She leans her paintings directly against the wall and thus permanently crosses the boundaries between painting and sculpture. For her, the frame is by no means limited to a rectangle, but picks up the idea of the „shaped canvas“ from the American tradition. Rather, her works stand as objects in space and thus create immediate access to the visitor, similar to spatial installations or multimedia arrangements.
Characterised by a boldness and coolness that ignores or plays with traditional and classical aesthetic forms, White's works are marked by an uncompromising stance within contemporary art, they are critical in every respect and bold decisions in every case. She herself describes her works as „retro and yet futuristic, urban by nature, reactive and rebellious, but also modest and with a do-it-yourself character."
A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition with essays by Gudrun Bott and Barry Schwabsky. The exhibition is implemented in cooperation with VAN HORN, Düsseldorf and is sponsored by the Kunststiftung NRW.