Melanin: Color, Composition and Connection
Melanin: Color, Composition and Connection
Exhibition: September 28 – November 17, 2022
Opening Reception and Artist Walk Through: Saturday, October 1, 12pm-2pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Melanin: Color, Composition and Connection is a solo exhibition of new work by Daniel White, who presents a series of abstract paintings that bring to the foreground geometric forms, lines and color that reveal the intricacies of melanin and its power of connection.
White creates large works that are composed of smaller paintings that live both as individual pieces and as connected parts. The composition of these paintings serve as a metaphor to the importance of one within the whole, emphasizing that if you take a singular piece away the whole becomes a mystery. On view for the first time is White’s most recent creation, Monuments of Peace in a Universe of Discord, a monumental painting composed of 100 small painted panels that together render an abstracted image of our relationship to the microscopic molecule that gives us color.
This exhibition invites the viewer to simultaneously look inwards, outwards and towards each other and reflect on the pigments that make up our world. Historically, color has shown to have the power to fragment and create differences between us, yet White’s paintings suggest that melanin has the power to bring us together in our common bonds. Through his abstracted compositions, White encourages us to challenge our perceptions and interpretations of color and in the process find connections that join us together beyond our degrees of melanin.
Daniel White grew up in Kansas City, Missouri where he attended Kansas City Art Institute but did not finish his degree. He was determined to complete his education and enrolled in San Francisco Art Institute 20 years later, earning a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in 2001, majoring in painting. White’s work runs the gamut from super realistic fine art portraits, abstract paintings, photography and writing. His current work is influenced by Josef Albers, Mark Rothko, Jacob Lawrence, J. M. W. Turner, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.
This exhibition is part of the Art of the African Diaspora: Luminaries series, and is generously funded by the East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation.
Art of the African Diaspora: Luminaries
Luminaries is a series of four solo exhibitions that shine a spotlight on the remarkable work of four artists – Diamela Cutiño, J.B. Broussard, Donna Gatson and Daniel White – who have participated in Art of the African Diaspora but who have maintained an inconspicuous public image throughout their storied artistic careers. The four exhibitions will be presented in the West Gallery throughout 2022, as part of the 25th anniversary of Art of the African Diaspora.
Top image: Daniel White, Secrets at Giza, 2022
