Minnesota Street Project
1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, CA, 94107
Hours: Wednesday - Saturday 11am-5pm 

George Adams Gallery is pleased to announce Wheel of Fortune, an exhibition featuring a series of recent paintings by Cate White that "tells a story of personal and collective upheaval, conflict, loss, reckoning, exile and resistance to oppressive forces through the jouissance of painting." The exhibition opens Saturday, June 1 at Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco with a reception for the artist from 5 – 7pm. This is White's first solo show with the gallery.

After 15 years of making work inspired by her life in West Oakland, White's new series is influenced by the backwoods culture of Northern California, where she was raised and currently resides. Her work and life are tinged with what theologian Reinhold Niebuhr called a "sublime madness in the soul," a vital force against malignant power and spiritual wickedness. This madness, typically restrained, is unleashed in her paintings and her YouTube series "How Do You Paint," a self-proclaimed unhinged take on Bob Ross' "The Joy of Painting," an excerpt from which is featured in the exhibition.

White's uncensored, non-hierarchical sensibility manifests in hysterical abstract expressionist moments, intentionally amateurish portraits, and psychedelic interpretations of bucolic landscapes. These works blend culturally charged symbols of class, gender, morality, and value, creating paradoxical narratives that defy simplistic ideological positions. White’s narratives combine personal stories with Judeo-Christian mythology, offering fresh and often jarring reinterpretations of foundational myths. For instance, in Bambi’s Mom Getting Shot (2023), White draws a parallel between the death of Bambi's mother and the loss of her own grandmother, critiquing a cultural system that desensitizes us to trauma. Despite her critique, White finds a sense of tenderness and healing through the act of painting.

Cate White received her MFA in 2012 from John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, CA, and her BA in 1994 from Dominican University in San Rafael, CA. She has exhibited extensively throughout California and has been the recipient of several major awards, including the Tournesol Award from the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2015 and the 2x2 solos from Pro Arts in Oakland.