Wendy White - A Piece of History (Hand-Embellished #22)
Wendy White - A Piece of History (Hand-Embellished #22)
5 Color Process Serigraph Print on 130lb Cougar White with Spot-UV. Straight cut, signed, and hand-embellished by the artist.
30h x 24w inches
PLEASE NOTE
This print comes unframed, but a custom frame may be requested for an additional charge. Please email info@louisbuhl.com for more information.
The Buyer accepts all terms of sale and agrees that the edition will not be resold for a minimum of one year from the purchase date. The no-resale agreement is valid for the entire term specified regardless if a work is gifted to another Buyer.
Copyright of the artwork is non-transferable and remains the property of the artist.
Details
Louis Buhl & Co. is excited to announce the newest addition to our Salon exhibition space, a series of unique hand-embellished prints by Brooklyn-based artist Wendy White. For this project, White has manipulated a handful of prints from her edition A Piece of History, amalgamating advertisements, documentary photographs, and consumerist logos to create transformed works that introduce new visuals and applied techniques, making each one distinctly different from the next. Accompanying a select number of prints from the series is a custom-designed frame, painted in yellow and accented with small black decals that epitomize White’s cheerfully rebellious disposition.
The series of prints depict a sports car ad from the 70s set against a backdrop of mountains; an almost equally retro ‘Power-Up’ heart hangs above. Blurring the lines between the machine and the hand, the messy and clean, the mistake and the intentional, this series of hand-embellished prints continues White’s ongoing analysis of male dominance within society: "[the pieces are] both homage and critique of advertising and car culture, in which women are touted as prizes for owning sports cars. The [prints juxtapose] a vintage ad against a mountainous landscape, suggesting escape and referring to the myth of freedom, ownership, and conquest that surrounds the automobile. A pixelated black heart floats above, much like the symbol of health in video games or an 80s decal, representing hope and optimism — an attempt to recast the embedded narrative."
White has spent the last few years gaining as much knowledge as possible about vintage cars, and is the owner of a 1972 Plymouth that she repairs and refurbished herself. It’s no surprise, then, that the culture — and the conflicted relationship to it that many women in the community must hold — pops into her work. While the misogynistic imagery in these ads is usually enough to make you roll your eyes, the text can be even worse, and White’s edition features a pitch pulled directly from the stone ages: “You not only get a car and a girl but a piece of history.” She appropriates this messaging, isolating and recontextualizing symbols until they take on an entirely new meaning.