ABOUT
Lonney White's investigations into the properties of natural materials compliment his equally organic work ethic. White invents a unique aesthetic vocabulary through his interests in depth, composition, texture, and the use of light. While fundamentally abstract, White’s work references natural phenomena such as metamorphic rock, atmospheric formations and fossilized skeletons. White accepts the innate tendencies of his chosen materials, more so collaborating with his materials than manipulating them. As White mentions, " I try not to force the materials to do something they would have an aversion to, I want the material to react as it would naturally. This allows for a continual discovery that is always surprising. It excites me not knowing what to expect from the process; the materials then have a kind of honesty. Intuition, composition, and scale are my limit of control."
Beyond material investigations, White’s work resides within the post-conceptual resurgence of painting in contemporary art. White’s wax encaustics emerge from the postmodern assault on the picture plane; distinct varieties of wax melt, converge and combine in multitudinous textured formations. What was once three-dimensional attempts to become two-dimensional, yet remains lost in a dual state of ascension and descent. White’s paintings not only test the limits of contemporary mark-making, but also question their very status as image-objects.