On Craft and Unexpected Materiality

Pae White’s artistic practice, which encompasses sculpture, tapestry, graphic design, and large-scale installations, explores both material and motif. She pushes the boundaries of a medium’s possibilities and often turns its associations on their head by repurposing everyday materials into sensual and revealing new arrangements: yarn becomes paint. Car paint is applied to organic forms. Jacquard weaves take on sculptural qualities. Paper is mistaken for bronze. For the artist, every work is an experiment, and nothing ever seems fully complete.

In this conversation, White discusses concepts of beauty, craftsmanship, and creative processes with Kimberly Bradley, particularly in relation to her latest series of works—on view in her solo exhibition “pushmi-pullyu” as part of Gallery Weekend Berlin at neugerriemschneider on Christinenstraße.

The works of Pae White (born 1963 in Pasadena, California) combine scale and delicacy to transform everyday materials into sensual and insightful new arrangements. White participated in the Whitney Biennial in New York (2010) and the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). Her solo exhibitions include those at the Plataforma de Arte Contemporáneo, Guadalajara (2025); the San José Museum of Art, San José (2019); at the Saarlandmuseum, Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken (2017); at the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna (2013); at the Langen Foundation, Neuss (2013); at the South London Gallery, London (2013); at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2011); at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2011); at the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis (2010); and at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2007). Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester (2006); and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2004). White lives and works in Los Angeles.

Kimberly Bradley is an art critic, cultural journalist, editor, and lecturer in Berlin. She has written for publications such as frieze and The New York Times, edited catalogs and artist books for institutions including the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the Haus der Kunst, and the Gropius Bau, and taught courses on contemporary art practice at NYU Berlin for ten years. She is an editor at Art Basel Stories and curated the Art Basel Conversations in Basel and Miami Beach in 2024.

IN ENGLISH

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