Cate White
Having spent my formative years in the backwoods culture of
guns, 4x4s, and meth in Northern California, I find familiar
comfort on societal and psychic margins. The span of my intimate
relationships across many social groups has made clear to
me the inadequacy of discourses that remain confined to any
one demographic. I am interested in how underrepresented
perspectives made visible complicate established narratives
around fundamental themes: gender, race, class, beauty, power,
value, and morality.
I use the democratic language of emotion, the figure, narrative,
comedy, and self-exposure to handle a range of subjects:
existential reckoning, emotional outbursts, art-historical
revisions, satires of media ideals, personal narratives, portraits of
friends and of archetypal characters.
My painting process combines premeditation and improvisation
so I can communicate what I’ve come to know while allowing
for my perceptions to be altered by chance, mystery, and
unconscious knowledge. I trust in the act of painting and the
public conversations that arise in response to it, to illuminate the
invisible forces at work—both inner and outer—that construct
identity and culture.
![](https://nap-master.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/entry_thumb/public/WhiteA.jpg?eRhm6poGX6A1scQHryJ2ttEu6BV5zqtP&itok=4dkghuMC)
![](https://nap-master.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/entry_thumb/public/WhiteB.jpg?0AWsC.Nxo2OVEOz76JNbK1TrrxLJyyCg&itok=804KQ8F0)
![](https://nap-master.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/bio_cover_img/public/white%20headshot.jpg?v.h2YHevDP0yA8.a7l9888c2aZiDBIRt&itok=4neDzV22)