Neal White is a visual artist and occasional writer / curator who lives and works out of London. His art practice is underpinned by investigations that are rigorous and experimental – frequently connecting complex threads between social, political and techno-scientific modes and fields of inquiry. His work situates the ruptures and impacts of our increased detachment from the natural world by paying close attention to anthropogenic landscapes shaped by competing and sometimes violent epistemic imaginaries that raise issues of social and ecological justice.
Following his Masters in Digital Arts and a period exhibiting Internationally with a collective of artists/coders based in London (Soda 1997-2002), White’s projects emerged through placements and residencies in scientific laboratories and institutional residencies. This early work that was initially informed by technological interests began to probe sensitive ethical concerns within social contexts, often situating the artist and viewer as an experimental subject. Expanding his own post-studio practice through construction of displaced offsite structures; urban space stations, remote desert studio labs etc, White started to explore where and how techno-scientific imaginaries are concealed or become connected to lived experiences and places. Leading to the founding of Office of Experiments, itself a project exploring instituent/collective practice, White continued this work whilst learning about investigative methods from collaborators including Arts Catalyst, N55 and Center for Land Use Interpretation (USA). Rich, project-led encounters with artists (John Latham), activists (Mike Kenner), academics (Geographers, Anthropologists, STS Scholars) later theoretical architects (Monsoon Assemblages) shifted his interest to where knowledge is situated, or historically extracted, to whom it speaks and how. This is now a space of inquiry that shapes his own work as well as his interests in the modes and processes of artistic investigation and practice connecting social, environmental and ecological struggles across internationally linked conflicted landscapes and sites of contention.
Neal White works across many forms that include; drawing (digital assemblages), digital production of photographic and moving images and installation (digital/time-based/sound-light), offsite spatial mediations (mediated bus tours) as well as the construction of experimental structures / displays within the gallery or at remote or inaccessible locations. Much of this activity is developed through digital research and studio practice as well as experimental fieldwork and occasional reflective writing and publishing projects. Many of his projects are developed and authored with his partner, the Irish artist Tina O’Connell.
Selected exhibition history includes; Natural History Museum, Camden Roundhouse, Whitechapel Gallery, Henry Moore Institute, Chelsea Space and Royal College of Art (UK HE) Objectif Exhibitions (Antwerp), Moderna Museet and Fargfabriken (Stockholm), Portikus (Frankfurt), Venice Biennale of Architecture (Italy), Kochi Muziris Biennale (India). Work has been funded by amongst others; Mondriaan Fund (NL), Arts Council of England, Henry Moore Institute and Henry Moore Foundation, The Wellcome Trust and Center for Land Use Interpretation, Utah , USA, amongst many others in Europe. Selected works are in the collection of the The Henry Moore Insitute and Leeds Gallery Sculpture Collection
Neal White is a Professor of Art at CREAM, University of Westminster, where he leads Deep Field Projects and is a member of the Ecological Futurisms collective.
Links to academic publications, talks etc. are accessible via Neal White’s profile at CREAM.
Full Exhibition list and artist CV available on request - please use contact form.