Wayne White is a godhead genius, an American treasure, and one of the few, if only of the major artists whose original works you can find hanging in a coffee shop (Fred 62 on Vermont, in Los Feliz), and in the collection of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, Detroit Art Museum, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles, and Laguna Art Museum, among others.

White uses framed offset lithographs from the 1960’s and 70’s as canvas,  inserting his voice as text into these readymades, forming a new American landscape; panoramic vistas rife with wit and insight. Working on mass-produced lithographs allows him to play with notions of the authenticity and conventions of painting while mirroring our cultural stories. Redeeming these mass produced items with words, White taps our collective memory of decorative pictures from the past while establishing a new clue or perverse quip of possible meanings.

As the Emmy-award set designer for the avant-garde, subversive PeeWee’s Playhouse, White helped shape the impressionable minds now creating and consuming throughout America. His gentle effacing humor, both towards self and society comes to front, literally, with the addition of his hand drawn text. White is also a sculptor and puppeteer, and his live performances, which include banjo playing, soft-shoe, and storytelling show him as a post modern Mark Twain and the weirdest Will Rogers ever.

On February 16, Western Project opens “Master Works 2000-2009”  a ten- year career retrospectivewith a reception for the artist from 6pm to 8pm, featuring Wayne White’s paintings and works on paper. The show runs through March 23, 2013.