Carol White

Imitation of a Sigh
6″x11″; paper on paper; 2023

Carol White
Cork, Ireland

STATEMENT

Collage has been my medium of choice since childhood. A pile of paper off-cuts, magazine pages, tissues, acetate and time-honoured images is intriguing. I spent much of my childhood in museums and have taught art history. The faces of individuals from Caravaggio, Van Der Weyden, Durer to Rembrandt have universal appeal and are used in many of my collages as timeless people in flux. Fleeing, travelling, settling in new and off-putting places, give surreal qualities to the arrangements. Looking into the unknown, the ephemeral void, even tomorrow is alluring. Collage allows me to work through life events. Sharing collage as mail art, collaborative collages, sketchbook work and single imagery are part of everyday. American-born (New Jersey), my family and I have lived in Ireland since 1987.

BIO

Born in New Jersey in the 1950s, making collages since the 60s, my first serious outing was submitting black-and-white arrangements for our High School Yearbook in 1969. It took a while for the faculty advisor to say, “Yes”.

Work was exhibited in New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the 1970s. Museum Staff exhibition at The Newark Museum (1983); Summit Art Center (1984); ephemeral pop-up exhibitions: “C-Cal” in Loules, Portugal; “collage: juxtapositioning” at NEXT Gallery, Denver, Colorado; “Napoleon: the Elba Years”; “Book of Death”, Wales; “Sirens of the Harbour, Mermaids”, Bordeaux, France; “Turquoise”, Lyons, France; outings with Collagistes Collective: “Bustin’ out on a Dream 1”, Whitechapel Gallery, London; “Bustin’ Out in a Dream 2”, Copeland Hall, Peckham; “Art Worldwide”, Padua, Italy, 2014-2016.

Recent exhibitions include “MAMA PAPA DADA” at Dada Collage, Chemnitz, Germany, 2 March-25 April 2019; the tribute to Ray Johnson “The 10 Year Anniversary Edition of A Book About Death – The Last Waltz” at Islip Museum of Art, Islip, New York, September-November 2019; “collages: carolreidwhite” at Sarah Walker Gallery, Castletownbere, Co. Cork, Ireland, May-June 2019; and “1989 Worldwide Exhibition”, Cork City Library, Cork, Ireland. White’s work was featured in the chapter, “Playing with Paper”, of The Collage Ideas Book by Alannah Moore (Octopus Press, 2018); and in “Selections from The Flying Glue Book” in Kolaj #22.

ARTIST CONTACT

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INSTAGRAM

IMAGES

Nell, Who Would Rather Be a Plant
15″x12″; paper on paper; 2023
Future of External Borders
16″x12″; paper on watercolor paper; 2023
False Information
12″x6″; paper on paper; 2016
Sword Swallower
12″x8″; paper on paper; 2023