Wayne White Diptych Word Paintings MYEGO YOUREGO. Acrylic on offset lithograph on paper board Purchased from the Cheekwood Museum., Nashville, TN. Previously on loan to the Western Project Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. Each painting measures 20.5 by 20.5 inches. Wayne White is an American artist, art director, illustrator, & puppeteer. Born and raised in Chattanooga, Wayne has used his memories of the South to create inspired works for film, television, and the fine art world. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University, Wayne traveled to New York City where he worked as an illustrator for the East Village Eye, New York Times, Raw Magazine, and the Village Voice. In 1986, Wayne became a designer for the hit television show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and his work was awarded with three Emmys. After traveling to Los Angeles with his wife, Mimi Pond, Wayne continued to work in television and designed sets and characters for shows such as Shining Time Station, Beakman’s World, Riders In The Sky, and Bill & Willis. He also worked in the music video industry, winning Billboard and MTV Music Video Awards as an art director for seminal music videos including The Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Tonight, Tonight’ and Peter Gabriel’s ‘Big Time.’More recently, Wayne has had great success as a fine artist and has created paintings and public works that have been shown all over the world. His most successful works have been the world paintings featuring oversized, three-dimensional text painstakingly integrated into vintage landscape reproductions. The message of the paintings is often thought-provoking and almost always humorous, with Wayne pointing a finger at vanity, ego, and his memories of the South. Wayne has also received great praise for several public works he has created recently, including a successful show at Rice University where he built the world’s largest George Jones puppet head for a piece called ‘Big Lectric Fan To Keep Me Cool While I Sleep.’In 2009, Wayne’s life and career were chronicled in an incredible 382-page monograph, edited by Todd Oldham. The book features hundreds of images from Wayne’s earliest work as an illustrator all the way to his most recent fine art sculptures. Since the book’s release, Wayne has been traveling the country delivering an incredibly entertaining hour long talk where he discusses his life and work, while making time for a little banjo and harmonica playing.White’s work truly reflects a contemporary postmodern style, taking art and language out of their original context and combining them to reconstruct what he calls “a new kind of history painting.” For example, in “MY EGO YOUR EGO,” we have three separate artists credited for the same piece: The frame denotes authorship to “D. Armstrong,” while the bottom of the canvas is signed by “W.W.” and the wall tag created by Cheekwood gives total recognition to Wayne White. The painting is no longer created under a totalitarian authorship.White remarks that finding this appropriating process “took a big cultural load off.” Perhaps the sharing of images allows the unknown artists to be in part responsible for the works’ aesthetic representation. But in his new position as the “artist allocator,” White is completely responsible for the context in which we view these paintings. In its mere stimulation of spectacle, with no significant or lasting impact, the work seems to take its cue from Hollywood productions and New York kitsch art. But we can all be somewhat charmed by the works’ Southern idiomatic feel. White makes no qualms in stating that the paintings are not meant to take themselves seriously, and for him, it’s mostly about the humor. Although his wit gives the audience a place to enter and feel comfortable with his compositions, the work does exemplify the struggle of contemporary painters—artists who are not only trying to make their unique voices heard, but also allowing the medium to re-create its own historical identity.

Good Condition as pictured

20.5 x 20.5 in