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F5: Dwight White II on the Art + Collaborations That Inspire Him
Ask any artist how they found themself in the art world and many will regale you with a tale of an unexpected career path. Dwight White II is a Chicago- and Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist who turned to the medium after suffering a life-changing injury while playing football at Northwestern University. This pivot to another this interest has carried Dwight down a winding path to a place where his work straddles fine art, sociology, and experiential design.
“It clicked for me during grad school at Northwestern University while I was studying marketing. I was completely in a phase of exploration and curiosity beyond my formal education. Living alone for the first time in the city with no roommates, I was forced to sit in my thoughts more and ask myself real questions like, ‘What is your purpose?’,” White shared. “Although I didn’t have a clear answer, I did understand my interests and potential impact beyond athletics. After spending the next few years building within the arts community and immersing myself in Chicago culture, it became more clear that the arts was where I belong – and sitting at my corporate desk became destructive to my overall well-being, knowing I had no flexibility to take complete ownership of my career journey.”
His background in marketing and consumer insights inspired White’s work and his search for the ways truth can be captured visually to engage and connect with people. Nuanced Black human behavior and personal experiences are large parts of his art. These themes are prevalent subjects taking the consumer beyond visuals and into the realm of feeling.
“Even while I was still working a full-time corporate role in 2018, by that point art was already a career in my mind. I was committing nearly equal time to both careers and it was a priority to me. I would get extremely offended when my craft was positioned as a hobby, considering my passion for art,” White adds.
The artist’s ideas and strategies take root in his understanding of how consumers think and make decisions when it comes to brands, products, and the arts. His studies at Northwestern have given him the tools and insight to inspire, innovate, and explore subject matter through a lens of culture and creativity. In this way, White has worked to build strategies for growth with organizations across industries through the understanding of complex societal structures and behaviors of consumers.
Over the past few years, White has become a sought-after artist, working with individuals and companies doing art activations for Nike, Levi’s, Lululemon, Pinterest, the Chicago Bulls, and more. He’s embracing his role in society to document the history of connected cultural experiences through art and hoping to further tap into his interests in fashion, interior, and experiential design in the future.
Today, Dwight White II is joining us for Friday Five!
Photo: Max Sansing
This is one of the first murals by Max Sansing that I came across in Chicago, which inspired me to pursue art more seriously, but also consider the possibility of painting murals at scale.
This is the first piece that I ever painted as a young adult. I saw this work by Fernand Leger at the Art institute of Chicago during an intro to art course at Northwestern University. We were instructed to select a piece that grabbed our attention and replicate it. This experience validated my ability to paint and inspired me to begin the journey of becoming an artist.
Photo: Porsche/Daniel Arsham
This brand collaboration made me think outside the box in regards to what it looks like to create with brands that you admire and respect. Partnering with brands can sometimes be difficult, but selecting the right ones who fit your overall mission and aesthetic can be very rewarding.
Photo: NIKE
Converse has always been a brand I’ve admired. It’s fresh, original, and vintage. When I saw Virgil Abloh contribute his creative brilliance to the Converse portfolio, I was inspired and intrigued by sneaker culture and the mindset of the current young consumer landscape. The willingness for one to pay $1,000+ for a sneaker that typically can be purchased for under $70 was a clear discovery on how differently art is valued versus the average consumer product, good, or service.
Photo: Dwight White II
5. Pressure is a Privilege
Throughout my career, I have felt constant pressure – driven by my personal expectations of self and what I may assume others expect of me. For whatever reason, pressure has always been a valuable addition to my ability to create great things and I feel honored that my community sees high potential in my craft and abilities. That alone drives me even when I have self doubt.
Work by Dwight White II:
“Employee of the Month” Mural, Dwight White II Photo: David Alexander
“Change the Game” by Dwight White II Photo: Jaylen Prater
“Super Lu” Mural by Dwight White II Photo: Steve Rokicki
35mm Co Is Making Film Photography Cool for Gen Z
35mm Co Is Making Film Photography Cool for Gen Z
New sculpture park coming to Compton Verney to mark 20 years since the art gallery first opened to the public
It will feature work by eight modern and contemporary artists
Elizabeth Goodspeed on Juergen Teller and how we understand “flawed” images
Within this context, Teller’s photographs are an obvious provocation. They humanise celebrities by casting them into unfiltered anti-glamour, while still allowing us to judge them by the same extreme beauty standards of a retouched world (it’s no surprise that a meme has emerged calling Teller’s portraiture the true “face card test”). They’re the Instagram photo dump gone commercial – a seemingly haphazard array of images embodying a kind of performed indifference, or maybe an indifference to performance. The concurrent return of faux paparazzi photos by brands from Balenciaga to Bottega Veneta taps into a similar zeitgeist, mimicking authenticity and spontaneity within carefully staged campaigns.
The discourse that reliably arises from Teller’s work likely comes down to a black box of intention. Like the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes, we all know there’s a joke being played – but on who? Is it on the celebrity subjects, compelled into the realm of the ridiculous? Teller himself does describe his process as one of force, saying that for his W shoot, “I will kidnap the actor or actress and go to an undisclosed location, where we will take pictures for a few hours without any editor, publicist or hair and makeup artist on set.” Or is it on us, the audience, who willingly engage and amplify these real and unreal images?
The raw, unpolished nature of Teller’s photographs is often met with the same refrain: “I could do that.” In fact, that’s always been the point of them. While not without intentionality, Teller’s seemingly informal style is in fact just that: informal. Riz Ahmed, photographed leaning against Teller’s favourite tree in the 2021 issue of W, described the shoot as “the fastest of my life. 20 seconds, two clicks.” The technical barriers to creating images like this are low; no sophisticated equipment or advanced skills are required. Like Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionism, which broke free from the burdens of realism, Teller’s photography liberates itself from the norms of high-end, polished photography – and liberates us in the process as well. Artistry doesn’t necessarily lie in technical complexity or adherence to conventional standards of beauty. Instead, it lies in the ability to convey a message, evoke emotion or challenge perceptions. Teller’s work does precisely this by presenting celebrities and fashion icons in an unvarnished, almost anti-glamourous light, and selling it back to us at a premium.
I went snorkeling to see the world’s first underwater sculpture park
I traveled to Grenada to see the world’s first underwater sculpture park. In addition to being beautiful, the sculptures serve as artificial reefs.
Monkey Hugs Photographer After Being Reunited in Heartwarming Video
A photographer has shared the sweet moment Mikah the spider monkey gave him a hug after the pair had not seen each other in two years.
Casey Cooper, a dedicated nature and conservation photographer, shared Mikah’s story in a viral video posted to TikTok yesterday. Cooper explains that the spider monkey once lived in a tiny cage in a tiny apartment with no other monkeys to interact with.
@cooperlost Mikah the spider monkey once lived in a tiny cage inside a tiny apartment by herself with no other monkeys to interact with. She was in jail. 4 years ago she was rescued by a wildlife sanctuary in bolivia. She spent 2 years there learning how to socialize with other animals and fend for herself in the wild. Fastforward to today, shes wild, free and pregnant and gets to be a MOTHER SOON! Not all sanctuary stories are succesful but when they are, we remember why we do the things we do for each creature that gets a second chance at a wild life. #theamazon #spidermonkeysoftiktok #keepthemwild #wildlifesanctuary #wildliferehab #wildliferescue ♬ Tishomingo – Zach Bryan
Mikah was someone’s pet, presumably in Bolvia which is where a wildlife sanctuary rescued her four years ago. That’s where Cooper first met Mikah and she was being socialized with the other monkey as she learned how to fend for herself in the wild.
“The first day I arrived at the sanctuary, Mikah was being introduced to the jungle. She was on a leash at the time, that’s how you start to habituate them to the troupe,” Cooper tells the Miami Herald.
“Mikah was on the leash right next to the location of where I was going to be staying, and she walked up to me and kinda looked at me and hopped up and gave me a big neck hug, pretty similar to the one you see in the video.”
Mikah’s assimilation was successful, the conservationists had to ensure that she didn’t “get bullied or killed by the other monkeys.” This was partly achieved by placing Mikah in a cage in the jungle to keep her safe while she learned how to interact with the other monkeys.
Mikah is now out of the cage and cavorting with the other monkeys — she’s pregnant.
“She seems to have so much gratitude for the humans who rescued her,” Coopers tells the Herald.
“Seeing her felt like seeing a childhood friend. It’s an emotional feeling.
“You have this feeling of happiness that this animal we did all this work for is happy and comfortable and living a wild life.
“There’s always so much disaster and sadness when it comes to these animal stories, so when you have a victory like that, you really just want to celebrate it.”
Cooper previously featured on PetaPixel after he was filmed taking photos of a cheetah that walked over to him for a head rub during the shoot.
More of Cooper’s work can be found on his website, Instagram, and TikTok.
Image credits: All photos by Casey Cooper.
Bettina Made New York Feel Like a Secret
The artist toiled in her room at the Chelsea Hotel for decades, making photographs and sculptures she showed to almost no one.
Inside a Dazzlingly Original and Decidedly Playful LA Home
Art world veterans Tobias Meyer and Mark Fletcher restore a sense of visceral allure to midcentury-modern living
Compton Verney announces contemporary sculpture park
Across its grounds, the Warwickshire site will feature contemporary works including a new commission by Erika Verzutti
