The Chicago Project by Omaha, Nebraska-based artist, Watie White, transforms traditional linoleum prints into near billboard-sized vinyl images. As a result, each bold line and cross-hatch the artist used to construct the image is vividly communicated, revealing White’s signature style, which blends gestures of painting, printmaking, and drawing with text to create new visual content.
The artworks in the series tell individuals’ stories through a unique combination of expressive portraiture overlaid with textual interventions, which are excerpted from conversations the artist has with his spontaneous subjects. Through these new works, the artist aims to comment on the slippery humanist values of truth and honesty. The exhibition will combine portraits of two subjects from Omaha and two subjects from Chicago. The Chicago portraits will be made from people in the Hyde Park community during the run of the show and added to the exhibition in early summer. This exhibition has been organized by Jim Duignan of the Stockyard Institute.
