BIO and Artist Statement

BIO

Rachel White is a studio-based artist producing abstract works in paint on canvas and paper. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts in the College of the Arts at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Parallel to her studio practice and prior to teaching at the University of Florida, she held numerous positions in New York City luxury cosmetics advertising agencies, including Global Director of Image Reproduction at Clinique and Global Director of Creative Operations at Lancome, YSL, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, and Tom Ford Beauty among other brands.

While earning her MFA in Sculpture from Alfred University, Rachel focused on large-scale sculptural installation work, printmaking and digital media. These endeavors have had a lasting effect on her studio practice and advertising career. During her tenure in advertising, Rachel continued to explore the printed image, as her responsibility was largely dealing with retouching and the preparation of luxury imagery for in-store promotions, print advertising or online promotions.

Rachel is the recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Ox-Bow School of Art Residency, and Art on the Move Art Residency in Detroit. Her work can be found in international collections of art from Milan, New York City, London, and Harare to Casa De Campo, Dominican Republic.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My paintings begin with a color or combination I cannot get out of my mind, a “color impression.” The process is very physical. I build the composition using wide blades to lay down fields of color before disrupting them with contrary strokes.

Paint hues and intensities take me on a journey, mining my internal dialogue. Transparent layers float upon one another, forming a dimensional, chromatic space on the linen of the canvas. My imagination flows into the dream before me.

Despite the fantasy, smooth layers of color reveal the linen’s grain, alluding to a commercially printed dot pattern. I find the dots and return my awareness to process, logic and reality.