Eric White
Transmission

Project room
Solo Exhibition

May 19, 2012 through June 16, 2012

NEW YORK, NY (April 3, 2012) — Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Transmission, a series of new oil paintings on canvas by New York-based artist Eric White, in what will be his first solo exhibition at the gallery.

[EXT/INT. DOYLE'S CAR – DAY] Close shot of Doyle from back seat, twisting and turning the car in wild pursuit—driving around other cars, braking, roaring ahead. We move out through the windshield for a lurching, spinning, twisting view of tracks overhead, street signs and lights flash by in a reeling montage of movement, the train roaring above it all.

This passage from the screenplay of William Friedkin’s film The French Connection, describes the legendary chase scene that inspired the largest canvas in the exhibition. In 1971 Pontiac LeMans Hardtop Sedan (The French Connection), which measures ten feet across, White uses a washed-out palette to depict 1970s-era Brooklyn from the vantage point of Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) as he hurtles through the chaos of the city streets in pursuit of a hijacked elevated subway train.

In the artist’s words, “As with other paintings in this series, a camera pan or a series of shots is compressed into a single image, depicting multiple aspects and actions simultaneously, idealizing the sequence while manipulating and expanding the narrative. The translation of the dynamic and temporal nature of film to the static form of painting depicts the passage of time in two dimensions, and for me represents the idea of non-linear and/or simultaneous time.”

The paintings in Transmission reference films set in New York City and are part of a body of work that White continues to develop, which reinterprets cinematic car sequences as a means of exploring film and dream narrative, metaphysics, psychological dysfunction and the limits of perception. Both of White’s grandfathers worked in the auto industry in Detroit during its heyday. As such, works in this series reflect a unique combination of influences and inspiration, including nostalgia for his family history, appreciation for the artistry of cinema and the beauty and craftsmanship of classic American automobiles.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Eric White was born in 1968 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1990. His work has been exhibited extensively in galleries and museums around the world. Relying heavily on the dream-state, metaphysics, and 1940s era Hollywood for inspiration, White examines the boundaries of human perception in conceptually complex and expertly rendered oil paintings. He has served as adjunct professor at The School of Visual Arts since 2006. In 2010 White received a Painting Fellowship from The New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2009 he participated in the charitable group exhibition STAGES (which premiered in Paris and traveled to Miami and New York) to benefit the LIVESTRONG Cancer Foundation. A collection of his work, It Feeds Itself was published in 2003, followed by Who Are Parents? based on his 2005 exhibition. White currently lives and works in New York City.