Beauty is Embarrassing – The Wayne White Story

Last February I came across the trailer of Beauty is Embarrassing, a documentary about artist Wayne White by Neil Berkeley.

I must confess I wasn’t familiar with White‘s art until that moment and yet the trailer made me fall in love with it, instantly. There is such an explosive joy in White‘s presence.[ Italian version]

Painter, sculptor, set designer, puppeteer, banjo player and much more, Wayne White embodies the explosive power of creativity with an incredibly original humour.

‘My mission is to bring humour in the fine art‘ Wayne White proclaims. And so he does, with his unique creations. Take his paintings: White uses landscape reproductions from thrift stores and paints on them surreal, pungent, funny sentences with explosive typographic verve and inexhaustible irony.

But there is also something gracefully moving in all of this. In an interview for the current issue of  Juxtapoz White reminds us how beauty has the power to leave us humbled and in a state of vulnerability. ‘The overpowering awesomeness of beauty embarrasses us‘ he explains.

Wayne White‘s art reminds me of something Tom Robbins wrote in Another Roadside Attraction: ‘That’s the sort of playfulness that can transcend whimsy and frivolity to become a form of wisdom, a means of survival, a kind of grace.’

I am looking forward to seeing the entire documentary and I am happy to find out that there is a Kickstarter page where you can help the distribution of this incredibly inspiring adventure.

All the images thanks to Neil Berkeley and Wayne White.

[  Italian version]

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