Wendy White

Freight+Volume’s project space, Arts+Leisure, is proud to announce the opening of its second exhibition in East Harlem, Madrid Me Mata, by Brooklyn-based artist Wendy White. White is widely-known for her large text paintings that are both neon and subtle. They usually hang inches above the floor, or are actually placed on the floor to lean on the wall. The text is often mirrored or sculpturally attached to the side of the canvas. While this new exhibition is filled with the same gestures and chops that are typical of White’s, at A+L the artist does something a bit different - yet also familiar: all the paintings are circular, and are hung on top of greatly enlarged, manipulated Almodovar film stills. Madrid Me Mata pays tribute to her experiences with Galería Moriarty in Madrid, Spain, and her fascination with La Movida. La Movida was a countercultural movement in sixties Spain characterized by freedom of expression and transgression of the taboos imposed by the Franco Regime. White used inkjet photos as ephemera to capture the atmosphere of the moment; she chose pictures of food, magazine covers, and film posters - including paying strong homage to Almodovar. Some hang and some are stacked for people to flip through. The work relates the story of White’s time in Spain and her love for the country; the circular paintings act as windows into her history. This time period was a time outside of commercialism or marketability for White. It was a time of expression and movement. The culture of Spain offered her a place to freely make the work she needed to make.

It is impossible to experience Spain without experiencing Spanish fútbol. Like the rest of the world, the world cup has engrossed the US this summer. It has filled every bar on every corner of our major cities – especially NYC, which arguably is the most multi-cultural of the nation’s cities - with a fever for the game. This hunger has for centuries existed in Spain, and it is not limited to fútbol, it is equally found in language, food, and street fashion. Spanish culture is a dance, and this exhibition taps into that spirit, passion, and movement. White’s painting La Luna captures the pulse of Spain. Everything appears to revolve around fútbol. The ball is positioned in the painting as if it is ready for a header, or it is already careening towards the net. “La Luna” of course translates to “The Moon”: in a similar way that the moon has gravitational control on the tides, fútbol has a pull on La Movida, or the revolutionary spirit of Spain. The spirit of La Movida is found in fútbol fields, streets, restaurants, nightclubs, parks, villages, tapas bars and art galleries. It is a lustful appetite, a craving, and an urge to dance. The fervor of Spain is timeless. La Movida is a need to bravely, voraciously, live life in the moment. This need to live in the present is nowhere more evident than in White’s paintings.

Another example is the artist’s painting The Real Madrid – bold, direct, and unpretentious. It is wrapped in a gold frame that forms a crown, and the number 84 prominently fills the small canvas in a translucent yellow green. The painting calls our attention to the team, and the importance of the year 1984. The Real Madrid’s playing style known as Furia Española (The Spanish Fury) was based on aggression and power. White’s brings our focus to a to a group of players known as the La Quinta del Buitre (The Vulture Squad). The Vulture Squad replaced the fury with a less overtly athletic and more expressionistic style of play. This new style embraced Madrid’s newly attained independence, as Spain had recently transitioned at that time to democracy. La Movida is a dance that White learned to dance. White fell in love with Spain, and while there discovered the artistic groundwork she needed to take her work somewhere new. Spain offered her the platform to explore and to be wild. White’s paintings embrace free expression, change, excitement, and as a result they – and we - are finally caught up in the dance.

Please join us uptown on Wednesday, July 16th, from 7-10pm to experience the magnetism of the game, the dance, and the Spanish scene. With the accompanying limited edition artist book and exhibition Madrid Me Mata, White tells us her personal story of Spain, vis-à-vis her relationship with Galería Moriarty and the Movida movement, all by way of Spain’s illustrious fútbol history. Come celebrate freedom of expression, transgression, Spanish culture, and the Beautiful Game of fútbol, - through the bold new work of Wendy White.

Wendy White was born in Deep River, CT and lives and works in New York, NY. White received her BFA from Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA and her MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts in 2003. Among White's solo and group exhibitions are Savannah College of Art & Design, The University of Tennessee, and Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, among many others. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Modern Painters, Art Papers, Artforum, Art in America, New York Magazine, and others. Among her awards and fellowships are the Segal Foundation and New York Foundation for the Arts. White has lectured extensively at institutions including Pratt Institute, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hunter College, Cranbrook Academy, School of Visual Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Bard. Among White's institutional collections are the ARCO Foundation, Madrid, Savannah College of Art & Design, and the UBS Collection.