I had the pleasure of interviewing Wendy White at Untitled in 2019, since then she has had exhibitions at New Release in New York, at Vonn Ammon Co. in Washington DC and is currently showing at Denny Dimin in New York (on view until July 1). White will open her first solo museum show July 11 at Museum Goch in Germany. In addition to her knock out personal career, Wendy is a consistent champion of her peers. Here she recommends three contemporary artists we should all be watching. – Amy Boone-McCreesh

1. Yasmeen Abedifard 

I met Yasmeen Abedifard when I was Tieger Mentor at Cornell University in 2019. The originality and backstory of her work really impressed me; she uses a unique combination of drawing, video and poetry-like narrative that is extremely compelling. I love her drawing style, palettes, and ability to make digital techniques feel handmade. – WW

Yasmeen Abedifard (b. 1996, San Jose, CA) is an Iranian-American artist living and working in the Bay Area. She’s an artist focusing on storytelling mediums, such as comics, illustration, and animation. She received her BA in Psychology from University of San Francisco (2018) and her MFA in Visual Arts from Cornell University (2020). Her works have been included in shows at Jack Hanley Gallery, Safe Gallery, William Patterson’s Gallery, Random Access Gallery, Experimental Gallery, and Tjaden Gallery. She has been featured in publications such as Hyperallergic, ASSOCIATION, Brio Magazine, and The Cornell Daily Sun

2. Manal Kara

Manal Kara came to my attention via instagram, when they had a show at Interstate Projects in Brooklyn last year. I think it’s some of the most interesting and challenging work that I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s super heavy conceptually and fearless in terms of materials, which is just what I like. – WW

Manal Kara is a Moroccan-American self-taught interdisciplinary artist. Recent solo exhibitions include Xylem & Phlöem, No Place Gallery, Columbus, OH; The Viewing-Room Vs. The Adoring-Gaze, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, NY; and Song of the Other Worm, Prairie, Chicago IL. They have attended residencies at ACRE, Ox-Bow, September Spring at the Kesey Farm, and Project Freewill. Upcoming solo exhibitions include Below Grand, NYC; Shulamit Nazarian, LA; and Hair + Nails, MPLS.

3. Delano Dunn

I just saw Delano Dunn’s solo exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Vermont, and was really drawn to his mixed-media painting/collages trapped under glossy resin. I peeped his web site and realized he has a ton of interesting work that pushes the boundaries of what painting can (or “should”) be. I love an artist who isn’t afraid to work in series that aren’t just versions of the same thing! – WW

Delano Dunn was born in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts with an MFA in Fine Arts, and of Pratt Institute with a BFA in Illustration. 

Through painting, mixed media, and collage, Dunn explores questions of racial identity and perception within various contexts, ranging from the personal to the political, and drawing from his experience growing up in South Central L.A. He has had solo exhibitions in New York City, Los Angeles, and Buffalo, NY. Group exhibitions include I Like The Sound of That at Artspace in New Haven, Liberty and (in)Justice for All at Project for Empty Space in Newark, NJ, PULSE New York, PULSE Miami with Project for Empty Space and The Long Gallery Harlem, The Delaware Contemporary, and more. 

Features and interviews include The New York Times, VICE Creators, Black Lives Matter, ArtNoir, and Black Artist News. Recent reviews include Hyperallergic and VICE Creators. Dunn was the recipient of Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant, the College Art Association’s Visual Arts Graduate Fellowship in 2016, the Delaware Contemporary’s Curator’s Choice Award, and SVA’s Edward Zutrau Memorial Award. Dunn has completed residences at Project for Empty Space in Newark, NJ, The Wassaic Artist Residency, and SPACE at Ryder Farm. In addition he is a board member for The Wassaic Project. His works are in numerous collection including the Studio Museum of Harlem

He lives in Chicago, Il with his wife and two children.

About Wendy White:

Wendy White (b. Deep River, CT, USA) lives and works in New York City. She holds a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

Institutional exhibitions include EXPEDITION at The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (2021); Globe as a Palette: Contemporary Art from the Taguchi Collection,  Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art; Kushiro Art Museum; Hakodate Museum of Art; Sapporo Art Museum, Japan (2019); American Idyll at SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (2018); The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, curated by Franklin Sirmans and Jennifer Inacio, at Perez Art Museum, Miami (2018); The Art Show: Art of the New Millenium in Taguchi Art Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan (2016); Full of Peril and Weirdness: Painting as a Universalism, M Woods, Beijing (2015); Taguchi Hiroshi Art Collection: A Walk around the Contemporary Art World after Paradigm Shift, The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan (2015); Futbol: The Beautiful Game, curated by Franklin Sirmans, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2014); and So Athletic, Kunstverein Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin (2012).

White has had solo exhibitions at Kaikai Kiki, Tokyo; Leo Koenig Inc., New York; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles; Maruani Mercier, Brussels; Van Horn, Düsseldorf; Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago; Galerie Jérôme Pauchant, Paris; and Galeria Moriarty, Madrid. White is the recipient of a Painting Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (2012) and a George Segal Painting Grant (2008). Her work was featured in Phaidon’s anthology Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting (2011). White’s first solo museum exhibition is forthcoming at Museum Goch, Germany in Summer 2021.