New York based artist Eric White paints dreamlike images that he “disrupts” with elements of old Hollywood movies and glamour. We are usually looking at his subjects from strange angles, peering over their shoulders and into their vintage car interiors in a voyeuristic way. Previously featured on our blog, White’s work doesn’t seem to fit any particular visual category. The scenes he creates are unreal and defy logic but aren’t entirely Surrealism, and while figurative, cannot be called Realism – he has used the term “paranoid social realism.” White once said, “I don’t have a very good answer for where the ideas come from, they’re pretty much there already. I don’t go for anything strange, it just comes out that way. I don’t work hard to achieve the skewed perspective, it comes naturally to me, and I imagine it’s due to the way I perceive life in general.” He continues to exhibit his fascination with confined settings and cinema imagery in his latest series of oil paintings, which debuted last night at Serge Sorokko Gallery in San Francisco. White has always been interested in the artificiality of the space, and in the disconnect between interiors and exteriors. In his ongoing and “infinite” car series, he portrays figures interacting dysfunctionally in a claustrophobic environment. This is how we find his subjects in his painting “Sugarland Express Inverse 1973 Dodge Polara”. The piece stands out in this series for its bizarre inverted color palette and elongated 10-foot long composition. In another series of word paintings, he dissects the visual and psychological elements of his art; in one piece, he writes “Individuation” in a classic title-card font, while another barely hints at the crew member holding it up just off camera. In perhaps his most telling image, we see the artist himself sitting in his car and staring at a billboard in the middle of nowhere. Caught between his reality and his fantasy world, White invites self reflection while also searching for something more. The billboard reads: “No Other Dream”.
“Eric White: New Works” is now on view at Serge Sorokko Gallery in San Francisco through October 18th, 2015.
Kyle Cobban has said that the sensibility of his surreal drawings are rooted in his career as an instructor, observing students exploring their own stories. Recent work, in particular, seems to be examining the relationship between his subjects and the concept of "home." His drawings on Priority Mail envelopes further underscore this concept.
Ryan Bock's new immersive show at Ki Smith Gallery takes influence from the 1921 German horror film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," transforming bed frames and other "functional items made non-functional" in a dream-like environment. We’re given an exclusive first look at "Somnambulist," which opens on Oct. 26, in this post. Installation shots for the exhibition were taken by photographer Roman Dean.
