Austin Martin White
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Biography
Born 1984 in Detroit, MI, USA
Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, USA
Austin Martin White‘s artistic practice explores images that shape our historical memory, drawing on archival research that addresses issues of identity, race and postcolonialism. White received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cooper Union and holds a Master of Fine Arts in painting from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.
Using acrylic, spray-paint, vinyl, 3m reflective fabric and screen mesh mediums, the artist has developed a unique approach that combines paintings and works on paper with printmaking techniques, intertwining his themes with the historical conditions of the materials themselves. The play of references permeating throughout his work operates like active traces that continuously recur in the past and influence the present. The artist explores and reworks images that shape our historical memory, drawing on archival research of 17th and 18th century image production through mediums such as prints, tapestries, and paintings.
Austin Martin White's works were on view in the group show Overflow, Afterglow New Work in Chromatic Figuration at the Jewish Museum, New York in 2024. The artist held his first solo show at Capitain Petzel, Berlin in 2022, followed by a solo exhibition at Petzel Gallery, New York in 2023. He has also exhibited at Derek Eller Gallery, New York in 2023 and 2021 alongside artist Kathia St. Hilaire, as well as at T293, Rome and at Y2K, New York. His work is part of the permanent collection of The Marieluise Hessel Foundation, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson.
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Works
Austin Martin White
CastaCell, 2023Ballpoint pen on paperSigned and dated versoPaper dimensions:
80.5 x 74 cm / 31.7 x 29.1 inches
Framed dimensions:
86 x 79.5 cm / 33.9 x 31.3 inchesB-AMWHITE-.23-0007Austin Martin White's research on Casta painting forms the basis for this work on paper. In 18th century colonial Mexico, the ruling class of Spanish settler generations sought to order...Austin Martin White's research on Casta painting forms the basis for this work on paper. In 18th century colonial Mexico, the ruling class of Spanish settler generations sought to order identities in ways that reflected their interests and channelled the reality of mestizaje, or race mixing... They desired a hierarchy that placed Spaniards in a position over, first, mixed mestizos, then the Indigenous. The sistema de castas became a political and cultural rubric for classifying peoples by their relative proximity to or distance from whiteness. The genre of casta painting emerged to illustrate and help codify such logic.
In his casta-works, White incorporates historical sources and distances himself from them. This approach has personal significance for the artist, whose father recently discovered that his ancestry was not as simple as previously thought. The premise of belonging becomes a source of anxiety, as a hierarchy of subjects dissolves into layers of pigment, acrylic and spray paint on various supports, including a screen mesh often used in construction or sports equipment.Exhibitions-
Sweet Sixteen
Celebrating 16 years of Capitain Petzel 7 June — 3 August 2024On the occasion of Capitain Petzel’s sixteenth anniversary, the gallery is excited to present Sweet Sixteen, a group exhibition celebrating the artists who have been integral to its program since...Explore -
Austin Martin White
Last Dance 16 September — 22 October 2022It’s all too much, really. There are credit cards to pay down, rent to cough up—never mind the wildfires and the mass shootings. A sense of pressure is building, impossible...Explore
External ExhibitionsOverflow, Afterglow: New York in Chromatic Figuration, 2024
The Jewish Museum, New York
NewsPress-
Blue Chip: "Familiar Dysphoria" (Austin Martin White)
4 November 2023 -
Texte Zur Kunst: "Mnemosyne in Neon" (Austin Martin White)
Julia Modes, 30 December 2022 -
Artforum: "Austin Martin White"
Martin Herbert, 1 December 2022 -
Flash Art: "Austin Martin White 'Last Dance' Capitain Petzel / Berlin"
Philipp Hindahl, 20 October 2022 -
032c: "SMASHED COLLARBONES: Berlin Art Week 2022" (Austin Martin White)
Claire Koron Elat, 27 September 2022 -
Welt am Sonntag: "Das Beste ihrer Art: Austin Martin White Bei Capitain Petzel"
17 September 2022 -
Observer: Kathia St. Hilaire and Austin Martin White Flourish at Derek Eller Gallery
Teresa Xie , 11 March 2021
