DANIEL WHITE: KNOCK SEVEN BELLS

May 23 - July 4, 2025
Does memory create its own landscape, or does it just make those events more bearable? In the end, does it all work out? What is real between us? What isn’t real? There is just something tragic about growing up, and no one is spared the harsh truths. Before you know it, you can’t remember what it was like wandering down trails that led to nothing or holding your breath underwater. Memory is a push/pull and so is painting alongside art history. (…)

Painting by Daniel White of a figure with closed eyes, surrounded by pink shapes resembling flotation devices, on a teal background.

Exploring subjects past and present, White’s latest series of paintings for Knock Seven Bells, is a deep dive into the artist’s figurative abstract work.

The show title, taken from an informal British expression having multiple meanings, fits neatly here: informal subjects presented as formal framed oil paintings.

White infuses remnants of memory, truths/half-truths, and implied memory to ask vulnerable questions:

Does memory create its own landscape, or does it just make those events more bearable?

In the end, does it all work out?

What is real between us?

What isn’t real?

There is just something tragic about growing up, and no one is spared the harsh truths. Before you know it, you can’t remember what it was like wandering down trails that led to nothing or holding your breath underwater. Memory is a push/pull and so is painting alongside art history. Often, they are stories that start out as tragedies, turn into an adventure, and sometimes end well.

The weight of art history is a far heavier load on the brush than the paint. The weight of memory can be even heavier, and painting is always present with the past. What one has to do with both is turn a mirror onto it and ask questions.

Where, through paint, does the trail end, do they survive the boat wreck, are we going to make it through?

Abstract painting of two smiling orange humanoid figures with black outlines, sitting and leaning against each other with a wavy, striped background.

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Painting by Daniel White of a face with vertical stripes in blue and earth tones, featuring a simple expression and wearing a striped scarf.

Illustration artists being White’s earliest influence, his love for inspiring sources varies widely; from the vulnerable honesty of a John Bankston painting, the reflective work of Claire Tabouret, the nocturnal paintings of Frederic Remington, the figures on the side of a 19th Century Chinese serving bowl, to the saturated flatness of Japanese woodblock prints and all the way forward to the Modernists’ approach to painting or the utter banality of Pop Art. This creates the DNA for his work. It is then distilled and rendered down to a complex simplicity and essential elements. Doing this on the formal structure of oil on canvas brings playfulness to an otherwise often serious medium.

Daniel White lives and works in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama area. He is a seasoned arts professional by day as the Director of the Paul R. Jones Museum and The University of Alabama Gallery. He holds an MFA from The School for American Crafts at RIT (2002) and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Montevallo (2000).

His artwork, embracing playful informality and often self-reflective, can be found in private collections across the United States.

Painting of a young boy with short dark hair, sitting outdoors with a striped fence in the background, wearing a black vest over a yellow shirt, holding a stick.

Daniel White

Lost in Thought

2025
oil on canvas
40 by 30 in. (ca. 101,6 by 76,2 cm)

private US collection

Colorful, stylized painting of two figures with orange skin, sitting on a striped background, smiling and facing each other.

Daniel White

Image for the Teen Runaway Handbook

2025
oil on canvas
36 by 36 in. (ca. 91,4 by 91,4 cm)

Daniel White

One with Everything

2025
oil on canvas
40 by 30 in. (ca. 101,6 by 76,2 cm)

private US collection

A painting of a person with a brown skin tone and dark hair, wearing a white shirt, holding a large red-striped clay vase, with a dark background.

Daniel White

The Captain & his Vessel

2025
oil on canvas
20 by 24 in. (ca. 50,8 by 61 cm)

private US collection

Daniel White

Der Kommisar

2025
oil on canvas
36 by 36 in. (ca. 91,4 by 91,4 cm)

private US collection

A painting of a child with a round face and black hair, wearing a striped shirt, standing next to a table with an orange and red dish.

Daniel White

Grillin’ the Most

2025
oil on canvas
16 by 20 in. (ca. 40,6 by 50,8 cm)

A painting of a shirtless person with a towel draped over one shoulder, sitting against a dark background.

Daniel White

Hot Doggin’

2025
oil on canvas
30 by 24 in. (ca. 76,2 by 61 cm)

Two children, likely babies, sit on the floor in front of a blue background with white polka dots, both wearing orange clothing.

Daniel White

All Day Happy Hour

2025
oil on canvas
24 by 30 in. (ca. 61 by 76,2 cm)

private US collection

Abstract painting of a person's face with dotted pattern, black lines outlining facial features, surrounded by blue polka dots background.

Daniel White

Enlighten Me, Then

2025
oil on canvas
36 by 36 in. (ca. 91,4 by 91,4 cm)

Abstract painting of a human figure with a large red head and a small face, with a dark background.

Daniel White

Namaste, Hold the Onions

2025
oil on canvas
20 by 16 in. (ca. 50,5 by 40,6 cm)

Painting of a figure with a pumpkin-shaped head and a patterned shirt, set against a dark background.

Daniel White

Namaste with Everyting - All of it

2025
oil on canvas
20 by 16 in. (ca. 50,5 by 40,6 cm)

Close-up of a modern, abstract painting featuring two stylized faces with brown skin, black outlines, and simple facial features, against a pastel background.

Daniel White

The Dreamer and the Machinist

2025
oil on canvas
24 by 30 in. (ca. 61 by 76,2 cm)

Close-up of a painted portrait of a person's face with stylized vertical lines, black outlines, and a dark background.

Daniel White

Kodachrome Karl

2025
oil on canvas
24 by 24 in. (ca. 61 by 61 cm)

private US collection

Abstract painting featuring a large yellow circle with vertical black, orange, and yellow stripes, set against a muted green background.

Daniel White

Full Moon

2025
oil on canvas
20 by 20 in. (ca. 50,8 by 50,8 cm)

A painted wooden depiction of a woman wearing a red headscarf, with narrow eyes, a small nose, and lips, on a striped yellow and brown background.

Daniel White

Nightswimming

2025
oil on canvas
20 by 16 in. (ca. 50,5 by 40,6 cm)

Painting of a child with a round face and short brown hair, wearing a red shirt and reaching into or touching turbulent water.

Daniel White

Full Steam Ahead

2025
oil on canvas
36 by 36 in. (ca. 91,4 by 91,4 cm)

A painting of a young girl lying on a bed or surface with her eyes closed, wearing a red shirt, surrounded by white flowing or swirling elements, with a dark background.

Daniel White

Bobby the Bobber

2025
oil on canvas
14 by 14 in. (ca. 35,6 by 35,6 cm)

Close-up of a stylized painting of a person with a tan face and closed eyes, wearing a red shirt, surrounded by white and black abstract shapes.

Daniel White

Sam the Sinker

2025
oil on canvas
14 by 14 in. (ca. 35,6 by 35,6 cm)

A painting of a person's face with a brown complexion, short dark hair, and closed eyes, resting on a cushion or pillow, with a smoke or vapor nearby.

Daniel White

Toby the Tugboat

2025
oil on canvas
14 by 14 in. (ca. 35,6 by 35,6 cm)

A painting of a smiling person with a yellow face, dark hair, and a white shirt, with a background of blue and gray colors.

Daniel White

Fast Ronnie

2025
oil on canvas
24 by 30 in. (ca. 61 by 76,2 cm)

Abstract artwork with black vertical lines over a large yellow circle.

Daniel White

Full Moon - Light Blue

2025
oil on canvas
20 by 20 in. (ca. 50,8 by 50,8 cm)

Abstract painting featuring a large yellow circle overlapping with vertical black and yellow stripes on a blue background.

Daniel White

Full Moon - Dark Blue

2025
oil on canvas
20 by 20 in. (ca. 50,8 by 50,8 cm)

private US collection