Exhibition at The Cat St Gallery 17th January 2013
For artist Anthony White, the physical act of painting is an intrinsic part of his practice. In the sanctuary of his studio, White begins by quietly mixing paint, the smooth hues required for his palette might require a day or so to perfect. Working on one painting at a time, the pace quickens while he builds a structure in layers - freely improvising with the paint while adding collage to the production. White has found that in these ‘lost’ moments he’s able to do his best work. He becomes, in effect, the sole writer, director and actor of this performance - some of which will only be played out inside his head. Like one of his influences, the American abstractionist Lee Krasner, the artist tries to keep his conscious mind “from interfering with [his] goal to be intuitive and spontaneous”. Although they’re drawn from the depths of his inner psyche, White’s randomly produced images embody universal qualities.
Still a young artist, White’s resume is already impressive. Only a few years after graduating from the National Art School, in 2007 the Sydney-based artist received the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. The Bequest provided White the opportunity for travel and study in North America, which he followed up with the further honour of receiving the 2009 Storrier Onslow National Art School Studio Residency at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. White spent 3 months working and studying in the French city before deciding in 2010 to immerse himself in the history of L’Ecole de Paris and make Paris his permanent home. This new exhibition of White’s paintings, entitled Informal Relations, is concerned with capturing fleeting moments in nature. The title of his show is deliberately ambiguous and White’s ‘informal relations’ exist on several levels - form and colour, artist and paint, artist and canvas. New experiences in foreign places and the soft northern hemisphere light have led to fresh perspectives which the artist has vigorously expressed on canvas. Are these glimpses of landscapes, memories of places visited or simply pure abstraction? White’s paintings are spontaneous and not literal readings of anything. Through form and colour they represent an unrestrained rendition of certain snapshots in time. In Pala and Cache disorderly shapes and soft edges organise and fill space while in works like Araignee and Loophole dark and hard-edged overpainting creates depth. In the past White has painted in thick textural layers but for this series he’s paid more attention to the authenticity of the paint.
White’s freedom in expression has generated some magical arrangements. From the flat cornflower blues and pistachio greens of Antibes where composition relies on contrast, White shifts gear to Downtown and it’s harmony of blues punctuated with black. Through both his method and recent experience White has emerged as an international artist whose unique vision of the world speaks a universal language. As Piet Mondrian once said, "We should not see beyond nature. Rather, we should, so to speak, see through nature. We should see more deeply, see abstractly, and above all universally."
Anthony White is a painter, draughtsmen and sculptor and was born in Sydney, Australia 1976. As of 2009 he has been living and working in Paris, France. In 2005 White finished a Bachelor of Fine Arts Programme from the National Art School, Darlinghurst, Sydney. Anthony White was the recipient of the 2007 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship to New York. White furthered his education by participating in the Drawing Marathon Programme at The New York Studio School Greenwich Village. White's work draws immediately from his response to the landscape and urban environment. He is influenced by references from the New York School of the 1950's The Merzbau project of the artist Kurt Schwitters and the abstract movement including Mondrian's De Stijl and the combines of Robert Rauchenberg. His work is characterised by an awareness of surface and a preoccupation with the engagement of physicality and the found object.
Anthony White has produced a number of solo exhibitions, including Art House Atrium New Works (2006), Diverse Places with Marlene Antico (2007) Figure and Ground at Rushcutters Bay Gallery Sydney (2008) Paris Paintings (2010), Scratching The Surface (2011) both at Iain Dawson Gallery Sydney and Informal Relations at The Cat St Gallery, Hong Kong (2013) Anthony White was the recipient of The Marten Bequest 2007,The Elioth Gruner Prize for Landscape Painting Art Gallery of NSW 2005 and The Great Southland Art Prize 2003. He has also been the recipient of many artist in residence programmes throughout the world. The Vermont Studio Centre (2008),The Leipzig International Art Programme Scholarship (2010),Leipzig Germany, LaCite Internationale Des Arts, FONAS/Storrier Onslow Studio during 2009 and 2010. White has been a finalist in many art prizes in Australia including The Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, 2006 and The Churchie Emerging Art Prize 2005, and 2007,Hills Grammar Art Prize 2005,The Willoughby Art Prize 2006 Art on the Rocks 2005 and The Paddington Art Prize 2005 and The Lloyd Rees Memorial Art Prize 2002.Of which he received commendations in The Churchie Emerging Art Award and The Lloyd Rees Memorial Art Prize. White has participated in curated group exhibitions in Sydney, London, Hong Kong, New York and Brisbane with The Iain Dawson Gallery, The Tim Olsen Gallery,The COMODAA Gallery, The Cat St Gallery and Edwina Corlette Gallery respectively. White was a part of a group exhibition focusing on Australian painting at The Mary Place Gallery Four Young Australian Painters curated by Julius Bokor (2005) During 2011 White received a commission to produce new work for the filmmakers Baz Luhrmann and the costume designer Catherine Martin to produce paintings for their residence in Sydney, Australia and The Lower East side, New York. Anthony White is represented by The Cat St Gallery,Hong Kong
78 rue louis david
Bagnolet
PARIS
93170
Paris
FRANCE
France
Europe
