A decade in the making, ‘Extinct’, now on view at Kiklo Spaces, presented by Loughran Gallery, is the childhood obsession contemporary artist Dave White always wanted to turn into a collection. Unfortunately, lockdown meant the body of work has never been displayed in full… until now.
Produced in secrecy over 18 months, ‘Extinct’ is the series White has spent all his life researching. In order to create it, he went back to the drawing board, filling dozens of sketchbooks working from skeletons and specimens. Underneath each painting lies the under sketch which forms the crux of these works, built up over many sessions these layers form the painting, giving it life and movement where there is none.
Like many youngsters, White has never lost his sense of wonder for dinosaurs and the scale of these works, some of which are over 7ft tall, and his use of rich expressive oils helps to create the same sense of drama and awe.
White says: “As a child I would endlessly draw them, visualising their movement. This series hopes to connect and resonate with the viewer, imprinting the beauty of what could be lost in our world today.
“For the past decade I have created works that focus on the inhabitants of the natural world, their beauty is something we take for granted in the abstracted world we live in. Their fragility and scarcity and their fight for survival has been the catalyst and focus of my work.”
Produced in secrecy over 18 months, ‘Extinct’ is the series White has spent all his life researching. In order to create it, he went back to the drawing board, filling dozens of sketchbooks working from skeletons and specimens. Underneath each painting lies the under sketch which forms the crux of these works, built up over many sessions these layers form the painting, giving it life and movement where there is none.
Like many youngsters, White has never lost his sense of wonder for dinosaurs and the scale of these works, some of which are over 7ft tall, and his use of rich expressive oils helps to create the same sense of drama and awe.
White says: “As a child I would endlessly draw them, visualising their movement. This series hopes to connect and resonate with the viewer, imprinting the beauty of what could be lost in our world today.
“For the past decade I have created works that focus on the inhabitants of the natural world, their beauty is something we take for granted in the abstracted world we live in. Their fragility and scarcity and their fight for survival has been the catalyst and focus of my work.”