Next weekend, Downtown Oakland's pt. 2 Gallery presents The Fear, a solo exhibition by Woodrow White. Opening July 13th., the exhibition features a new series of paintings by the LA-based artist.
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be” –Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
"Beginning a new chapter of my life in LA, I was reminded of the saying 'fake it ’til you make it'. That your false confidence will trick others into believing it’s real, and if it’s convincing enough, you may even eventually be able to trick yourself. In this city of myth-making, fantasies are told on a regular basis in hopes of one day becoming true."
"The identity of the monster behind the mask becomes unified when flattened through the two-dimensional surface. In this plane of existence, they achieve the persona they dress for. I don’t seek to evoke the fear these characters aim to inspire, but the fear of the people inside the costume – their personal fear of being unmasked. My world brings together the familiar and unfamiliar. Harnessing the ambiguous reality within painting, I seek to build a tunnel between the literal and the imagined. As a magical realist, I seek the divine in the pedestrian and the pedestrian in the divine. Costumed figures and manufactured environments clash with reality inside the singular dimension of the canvas where the real and unreal become one." – Woodrow White
Woodrow White's The Fear opens at pt. 2 Gallery on July 13th, with an opening reception from 12 to 10 pm, and is on view through August 2, 2019.
