Opening Reception: Saturday, January 7th, 5 – 8pm
Exhibition Dates: January 7, 2017 – February 11, 2017

Cris Worley Fine Arts is pleased to announce our second solo exhibition with Murielle White, entitled, Mutation. An opening reception for the artist will be held at the gallery, Saturday, January 7, from 5-8pm. The show will run through Saturday, February 11.

In the spring of 2014, Murielle White was chosen out of 300 applicants to create a mural for the new Student Union on the University of North Texas campus. Since White was born to a culturally diverse family, it was important to her that the mural reflects the cultural diversity on campus, a theme already focal to her art practice. Titled, Ocean of Possibilities, the 4 x 92-foot curved painting was installed on site in January of 2016.

Since that time, Murielle White has worked tirelessly on a body of work that had to wait while she completed the University’s commission. Along with her prevailing obsession with cultural identity, and inspired by recent personal events, the artist began down a new path of self-discovery. This culminated in the seven new mixed media paintings found in Mutation. In this body of work, White incorporates themes from her past, popular iconography and language from the four countries of her grandparents, along with lone figures in silhouette, that allude to a kind of personal transformation. Of note is the focus on line, lines demarking borders, lines revealing cracks that at once, form innocuously, and grow into eventual great divides.

White graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Florida with a B.F.A. in Studio Art in 2006 and went on to receive her M.F.A. from the University of North Texas in 2010. She has studied abroad the traditional painting techniques of India and China. White has had solo exhibitions in Dallas, Houston and New Orleans and is in private and corporate collections.

Artist's biography and press released

"Mutation", solo show review at Cris Worley Fine Arts

Public Art Commission for UNT, 4' x 92' mural.

DENTON, Texas (UNT) – The University of North Texas' new University Union featurescreative artwork that captures some of UNT's best characteristics.

Two commissioned pieces – "Ocean of Possibilities" and "Quiet and Soaring" – were
installed Jan. 19 in the union's food court and meditation room, respectively.

More than 300 artists had applied for a commission in spring 2014 from UNT's Art in
Public Places program to have their artwork displayed at the union. A selection
committee made up of regional art professionals, students, faculty and administrators
selected the pieces.

"Ocean of Possibilities"
The artwork of alumna and faculty member Murielle White, whose 4-foot by 92-foot
mural Ocean of Possibilities reflects the diversity, tradition and sustainability of UNT, is featured on the curved dining room wall of the second floor food court.

"I picked the traits that make UNT stand out and merged it with my own painting style," White explained of the mixed media mural that combines images of UNT with the abstract painting themes she uses in her other artwork.

Originally from Paris, France, White said she easily related to the theme of diversity, which is reflected at the university with a significant international student population, a number of non-traditional students and veterans returning to or entering college for the first time. Tradition, such as excellence in the College of Music's jazz studies program, and sustainability, such as the Platinum LEED status of Apogee Stadium, also are important to the university, White noted.

"I wanted an art piece that the audience could relate to," she said of weaving in these
themes. "I would like people to find a spot they can identify with – not just students and people on campus, but even parents who come to the school not knowing anything about it. I hope it will be inspirational and educational."

The mural uses complex layers to create an element of surprise. The first layer is a digital collage printed on canvas panels. White hand-painted the canvas with acrylic paints to add texture.

As one of two artists picked to create new artwork for the University Union, White said she is honored – and that the commission has special meaning for her.

"UNT has a special place in my heart because I graduated from here," she said. "It's an amazing opportunity to create a public art piece that will be viewed for years to come." White attended meetings with students who offered her design feedback as she developed the imagery for the work. She said she had received many compliments from the students. "Students love to see the mural because they daily discover a new area that they have not seen before," she said. "They are immersed into a colorful journey."

The transnational artist Murielle White is exhibiting her new body of work at the Brookhaven Community College Forum Gallery. Much like most of the community colleges in DFW, Brookhaven provides a space for artists to test their work in a gallery setting. White is well tested as an artist. In 2010, her upstairs show at 500X was a triumph of epic proportion. I have never seen a show in their upstairs space that simply owned the walls with energy and painting skills. She was picked up by a great gallery, Cris Worley Fine Arts, and White has been part of several group shows ever since the gallery opened. Brookhaven is like a prologue to White’s upcoming solo show at Cris Worley, so I feel that I am getting a little sneak peek at what is about to come later this year.

Her paintings are about her global experience as an artist. She layers her paint on the canvas like a historian lays stories upon time. Each symbol and shape is an important part of her personal narrative. With four grandparents from four different French colonies, White has a personal cultural experience that is global in scale. Each painting contains language, cultural objects and patterns, from her family and personal experiences. I think collage elements, abstract layering, and the layering of symbols act as memories or graffiti that cover parts of her past and creates new connections though a single painting. In particular, the symbol of the elephant has appeared prominently in some of her new work. This iconic image is painted on a graphic like line painting or silhouette. For me, White is representing the shadows of information she has gained from her grandparents experiences. Like everyone, she can only abstractly drive images from someone else's experiences.

The surface of her paintings are worth experiencing in person. There is a mixture of thick and thin that shows White attacking the canvas surface like an Abstract Expressionist pro, but unlike those transcendental/spiritual painters, White is more down to earth. Each stroke is meaningfully connected to the past. I have also noticed White has become more of a maximalist in the use of her space. She is packing in more and more shapes and brush work and allowing less minimal space. This makes for active compositions that keep my attention.

An artist that goes beyond the ideas of East and West, Murielle White paints the world of experiences on canvas. I encourage you to see the work for yourself at Brookhaven Community College Forum Gallery. The show runs until March 3rd.

Cris Worley Fine Arts is pleased to announce the opening of Murielle White’s first solo-exhibition with the gallery, Letters from Home, showing from May 12th – June 16th. The opening reception will be on May 12th from 5:30pm-8:30pm and the artist will be present. White graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Florida with a B.F.A. in Studio Art in 2006 and went on to receive her M.F.A. from the University of North Texas in 2010. White’s M.F.A. show was held in April 2010 at 500X Gallery and the exhibition completely sold out. Soon after, she had a solo at Stella Jones in New Orleans followed by another at the Dallas Contemporary entitled Mixtîcius which was curated by Erin Cluley. She currently lives and works in Dallas, Texas.

White was born and raised in Paris, France in a culturally diverse family. Her four grandparents are from four different French colonies and territories: France, Guadeloupe, India (Pondicherry), and Vietnam (Tourane). This diverse family history is the main driving force behind her work. One of the overarching features of her large, colorful paintings is an invented script she created by mixing the four languages her family spoke. White says of her imagery, ‘I juxtapose visual elements from my cultural background to create unified, imaginary, abstract works where I can find my identity.’ The artist combines oil with mixed media because she enjoys the combination of traditional and non-traditional medium and the ‘dynamic dichotomy’ that is generated. This dichotomy is continued as White investigates her cultural history while simultaneously inventing a new language and visual world.