Bill White: Empathy and Engagement

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum is pleased to present a major solo exhibition including many recent works by nationally recognized painter Bill White. From his studio in Troutville, Virginia, to the streets of Paris, White explores interior and exterior landscapes. Exhibition curator and museum director Amy Moorefield comments, "Bill White is a consummate artist whose paintings imply monumentality, regardless of their actual size. It's all about the studio coupled with the plein-air experience, the physicality of the paint and the act of painting." Form and color merge to delineate furniture, plants, windows, balconies, and bridges. White's feeling for each scene provides the viewer with a sense of familiarity. Art historian Jen Samet writes, "White's paintings are exuberant and expansive in their color, light, and abundance of form and life. However, they have a naturalism and softness that comes from the resistance to stylize or rigidly define form."

White received his BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) and his MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Professor Emeritus after 39 years at Hollins University, White has received numerous accolades including Cabell Fellowship and Mellon Foundation grants, residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Cité International des Arts, and various faculty and service awards. Zeuxis, a national association of still life painters, twice hosted White as a guest artist. His work is in the collections of Indiana University's Henry Hope Art Museum, Bloomington in Indiana; the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia; and the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg; among many others. White's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries including Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia; the Bowery Gallery in New York; White Canvas Gallery in Richmond, Virginia; and the Thomasville Cultural Center in Thomasville, Georgia. A full color catalogue with essays by Amy Moorefield, exhibition curator and museum director, and art historian Jennifer Samet, Ph.D, will accompany the exhibition.