Paintings hover about, unattached to their referents. They differ, in time, reference, and ambience, from film and photography. They welcome their viewers through their visual impact and, like ghosts, haunt them through their visual omissions. They conjure an absence, which ferments attachments and invites future visitations.
These works are place holders, solid forms that contain the residue of the immanence that comes from the search for a future. They invite contemplation.
Paint is ubiquitous, simple, and infinitely fascinating. It allows for a rhythmic oscillation between the permanent and the timeless; the material and the virtual; and the private and the public.
I have been been a practicing artist for over 50 years. This sampling was produced in my Philadelphia studio in 2023-24, where I benefited from the interplay of cognition, sensation, materiality, faith, and imagery.
I have most recently shown at: the Honickman Center, 2024; The Shape of Tomorrow (2021), Park Towne Place, Philadelphia; Incubations (2021), Scotts Mills Gallery; Ghost Stories, The Works Gallery (2019), NYC & Archer Law Gallery 35 (2019), Philadelphia, PA; and Related Visions, Provincetown Art Association and Museum (2018), Provincetown, MA, The Cotuit Center for the Arts (2016), Cotuit, MA; and Maryland Hall (2014), Annapolis, MD.
I attended a three-week artist residency at Jentel in Banner, WY in 2024. I am an Emeritus Professor of Art Education at Kutztown University. I earned an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute and a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. My textbook, Experience Painting, is published by Davis Press. In 2012, I was named the NAEA Higher Education Art Educator of the Year.
1994
Penn State, University Park, PA
PhD, Art Education
1975
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
MFA, Painting
1972
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
BA, Fine Art
2015
White, J., Experience Painting, Worcester, MA: Davis Publications.
White, J. (2014), Accounts about before from now: Historical research methods, In M, Buffington & S, McKay (Eds.) Practice Theory: The power of teacher researchers, Reston: VA: NAEA
White, J. (2004), A history of Art Education: 1920-2002, In E, Eisner & M, Day (2004), Handbook of research and policy in the field of art education, Reston, VA: NAEA
White, J. (2001), The ethnic aesthetics of Pedro deLemos: Editor, The School Arts Magazine (1919-1950), In D, Blandy, P, Bolin & K, Congdon (Eds.), Histories of Community-based Art Education, Reston: NAEA Publications
White, J. (1997), Intersection: School Arts magazine and Native American culture, In P, Bolin & A, Anderson (Eds.), History of Art Education (pp, 95-104), The Pennsylvania State University
Stewart, M., Congdon, K, and White, J. Mapping Identity for Curriculum, In Y, Gaudelius, & P, Speirs (Eds.) Contemporary Issues in Art Education, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
White, J. (2014), Navigating the research / practice divide, Visual Inquiry: Learning and Teaching Art, 2014, 3(10) 249-261
White, J., Garoian, C., & Garber, E, (2010), Speaking in tongues: The uncommon ground of arts-based research, Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research 2010, 51(2), 134-146
White, J. (2006), [Review of Performing pedagogy: Toward an art of politics], Studies in Art Education, 48 (1) 113-118
White, J. (2004), The preservation of handicrafts in the Southern Highlands: Northern philanthropy and social idealists, Visual Arts Research, 29(2), 44-52
1991 - 2020
Professor, Art Education, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
2002 - 2017
Chair, Department of Art Education & Crafts, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
2012 - 2014
Chair, NAEA Research Commission
2009 - 2011
Director, Higher Education Division, NAEA
2009 - 2012
Chair, NAEA Higher Education Research Steering Committee
2005 - 2009
Chair, Council for Policy Studies in Art Education
1994 - 1999
Chair, Art Series Program Committee, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
1988 - 1989
Head, Department of Visual Art, Crossroads School for the Arts, Santa Monica, CA
1977 - 1988
Director, Campbell Art Gallery, Sewickley Academy, Sewickley, PA
1976 - 1988
Head, Department of Fine Arts, Sewickley Academy, Sewickley, PA
2017
White, J., Blandy, D. & Hicks, L., The End, NAEA Convention
2016
White, J., Blandy, D. & Hicks, L., Touch, NAEA Convention, Chicago, IL
White, J. & All, Leadership, NAEA Convention, Chicago, IL
2015
White, J., Blandy, D. & Hicks, L., Glue, NAEA Convention, New Orleans, LA
2014
White, J., Blandy, D., Memory, NAEA Conference
2013
White, J. & Blandy, D., Improvisation, NAEA Conference
2012
White, J., Blandy, D. & Gude, O., Improvisation, NAEA Conference, New York, NY
2022
John Howell White, FREIDAcommunity, Philadelphia, PA
2019
Ghost Stories, The Works Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Recent Work, Gallery 908, Reading, PA
2021
State of the Art, The State Museum, Harrisburg, PA
The Shape of Tomorrow, Park Towne Place, Philadelphia, PA
On Balance, Scotts Mills Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Incubations, Scotts Mills Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Up Against a Wall, Awbury Arboretum, Germantown, PA
2019
Faculty Biennial, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
Vibrant Effects, Thomas Jefferson Hospital, Bodine Center, InLiquid and Revolve, Philadelphia, PA
Kutztown Faculty Exhibition, Montgomery County Community College, Pottstown, PA
2018
New Members Exhibition, InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA
Related Visions, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
2016
Related Visions, Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA
National Steel Corporation
Oxford Development Corporation
Pittsburgh National Bank
Westinghouse Credit Corporation
Coordinated Financial Services
2024
Hidden Beneath Joan’s Skirt, Honickman Center, Philadelphia, PA
Council for Policy Studies in Art Education
APSCUF
National Art Education Association
2017
Sharadin Award, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
2013
National Art Education Fellow Inductee
2012
National Higher Education Art Educator of the Year
2009
Pennsylvania Higher Education Art Educator of the Year, PAEA
1999
Manual Barkan Award for Outstanding Art Education Article (1999)
Travel, Boundaries, and the Movement of Culture(s): Explanations for the Folk/Fine Art Quandary. Art Education, 51(3), 20-42.
