SELECTED EXHIBITIONS/PUBLICATIONS
2025
Fauna, Flora and Fur, Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY
Trick Mirror, Warner Gallery at the Millbrook School, Millbrook, NY
Hudson Valley Artists: Movement, The Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY
Familiar/Unfamiliar, Bill Arning Exhibitions, Kinderhook, NY
The Middle Ages, Roundabouts Now, Kingston, NY
2024
Future Fair, Booth with Bill Arning Exhibitions, New York, NY (Solo)
The Model Citizen, Upstate Diary featured profile and interview with Bill Arning, Issue no. 19, pages 80-85.
Upstate Art Weekend Thorne Exhibition, Thorne Building, Millbrook, NY
On the Map, Curated by Sharon Bates, Millbrook Library, Millbrook, NY
Holiday, LABspace, Hillsdale, NY
2023
Bemis Benefit Art Auction Exhibition, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
Haunted Mill, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
Once Removed, Bill Arning Exhibitions, Kinderhook, NY
Brooklyn Rail, Back cover advertisement for Once Removed, July/August
Who’s to Say I’m Awake; Are You?, Geary, Millerton, NY
Back Gallery Exhibition, Geary, Millerton, NY
Chronogram, Front Cover & Artist profile for February’s Publication
2022
Frozen Warnings, Bill Arning Exhibitions, Kinderhook, NY
Bemis Benefit Art Auction Exhibition, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
One Work, Thursday Feature, Massey Klein Gallery, New York, NY (online)
2021
Swift as Sword, Parallelogram Gallery, Tampa, FL
2020
Many Faces of Bill Arning, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2019
I borrow my comparisons from clay, being clay myself, Amplify Arts at the Generator Space, Omaha, NE (Two-person show with Sarah Hummel Jones)
Malleable Perspectives, Eisentrager-Howard Gallery, Lincoln, NE (Thesis Exhibition)
Bemis Benefit Art Auction Exhibition, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
Anagrame, Tugboat Gallery, Lincoln, NE
$100 Dollar Art Sale, Project Project, Omaha, NE
Fantastically Familiar, Ghost Omaha, online platform based out of Omaha, NE
2018
Bad Faith in High Places, Outlook Projects at Turbine Flats, Lincoln, NE (solo)
Exquisite Swap Slop Pt. 2, Tugboat Gallery, Lincoln, NE
Bridge Work 3, Var West Gallery, Curated by Plum Blossom Initiative and Darger HQ, Milwaukee, WI (one of two artists representing Nebraska’s up and coming artists)
Bemis Benefit Art Auction Exhibition, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
Doublethink, UNL Architecture Hall, Lincoln, NE
Squiggle, Peace, Squiggle, Three Cups Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE (solo)
Peace Out, Medici Gallery, Lincoln, NE (solo)
$100 Dollar Art Sale, Project Project, Omaha, NE
UNL Graduate Group Show, Marshall County Arts Cooperative, Marysville, KS
2017
Flux: Second Year MFA Candidate Showcase, Eisentrager-Howard Gallery, Lincoln, NE
Nebraska Touring, A Traveling exhibition of student work representing the UNL Art and Art History Department, Warren Opera House, Friend, NE, Prairie Arts Center, North Platte, NE, Studio K, Grand Island, NE
Bemis Benefit Art Auction Exhibition, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
Tugboat silent auction/fundraiser, Tugboat art gallery, Lincoln, NE
Functionless Doodads, Useless Doohickies, Three Cups Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE (solo)
UNL-MFA Showcase, Lincoln Country Club, Lincoln, NE
2016
Canvas, Clay, Color, and Form, Iron Tail Gallery, Lincoln, NE
2015
Flowers: A Group Show, Sherman Popup Gallery, Portland, OR
A Spurious Excuse for Inaction, Sherman Popup Gallery, Portland, OR (solo)
PRINTS, PRINTS and more Prints!, Autzen Gallery, Portland, OR
2014
Modeled Abstractions, Littman/White Gallery, Portland, OR (solo)
Black and White, Sherman Popup Gallery, Portland, OR
2013
It’s a Still Life, Sherman Popup Gallery, Portland, OR
Untitled, Lucas, Portland, OR (solo)
Three Years, Neuberger Hall 2nd floor display case, Portland, OR
2011
The 2011 PSU Department of Art Student Scholarship Recipients Exhibition, MK Gallery, Portland, OR
Lincoln Hall Revealed, School of Fine and Performing Arts Alumni Reunion, Lincoln Hall, Portland, OR
Untitled, Neuberger Hall display case, Portland, OR
2010
Untitled, Lyrik Art Gallery, Portland, OR
Erik Daniel White grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received a BS in Art Practices from Portland State University in the Spring of 2013 and an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the Spring of 2019. He currently lives and works in the New York, Hudson Valley region.
Erik attentively paints hastily formed figures, symbols, objects, and scenes that were modeled with never-dry clay. He paints the malleable character of the clay by depicting its bumps, marks and dents, which emphasizes the fragility, impermanence, and the physical construction of the forms. Those visual attributes serve as a metaphor for the social construction of the concepts within the chosen imagery. To create his images, he builds clay up and physically moves it around—in a similar way, ideas and concepts get built up, manipulated, and changed over time. Many of his paintings serve as a cultural critique and a meditation on some of America’s attitudes towards the environment, food consumption, peace, liberty, tax policies, religion, and our obsession with competition; they allude to political failures, and national shortcomings.
By starting with the medium of clay, he employs a playful approach that serves as an effective tool to broach challenging and weighty subjects. The tactile and malleable nature of clay appeals to the viewer's senses, promoting a sense of familiarity with Claymation and early childhood experiments in arts and crafts. This approach becomes a way through which he can engage in conversations about complex and difficult topics that might otherwise evoke defensiveness or avoidance.
