Billy White, Untitled (Willie Mays), 2018
Billy White
Jan 9 – Feb 6, 2021
Adams and Ollman
Portland, Oregon USA

Adams and Ollman is pleased to present a solo exhibition of paintings by Billy White. Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition on the West Coast, the show will feature a selection of his expressive portraits made between 2016 and 2019.With graphic marks and emphatic colors, White conjures portraits that are celebratory and personal. Muscular and energetic brushstrokes coalesce to form complex images that are more emotional than representational. White’s subjects include his family and himself, as well as iconic figures from the worlds of film, television, music, sports, and art history. Captured in profile and at the front of the picture plane, each figure appears isolated, their likeness distilled to essential elements and forms assembled with bold lines and gestures. Often with unexpected shifts in perspective, the resulting works are psychologically-charged depictions of the human form.

Since 1994, Billy White has worked at Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development (NIAD), a progressive art studio in Richmond, California, that supports the careers of artists with disabilities.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS
  • Selma Selman: her0
    Nov 11, 2023 – Jan 14,2024
    Gropius Bau
    Berlin, Germany

    Beginning 11 November 2023, the Gropius Bau shows her0, a presentation by visual artist Selma Selman. At its core lies the development of her performance Motherboards (2023–ongoing), in which Selman and members of her family dismantle electronic waste. Challenging oversimplified and racialised narratives, the performance offers palpable insights into dynamics of power around the notion of sustainability. (more…)