Austin Martin White
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Biography
Born 1984 in Detroit, MI, USA
Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, USA
Austin Martin White’s artistic practice explores images that shape historical memory, drawing on archival research to examine questions of identity, race, and postcolonialism. By recontextualizing historical images and fragments, his work interrogates the ways in which history is constructed, mediated, and remembered, revealing the tensions between competing perspectives.
He has participated in group exhibitions at the Southampton Arts Center, New York; Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester; and The Jewish Museum, New York. White held his first solo exhibition at Capitain Petzel, Berlin, in 2022, followed by solo exhibitions at Petzel, New York, in 2023 and 2025, and his second solo exhibition at Capitain Petzel, Berlin, in 2026. In 2025, the first comprehensive monograph dedicated to his work was published (available at the gallery).
White’s work is part of the permanent collection of the Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson. His work has been featured in numerous international publications, including The New York Times, Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, Flash Art, 032c, and The Observer, among others.
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Austin Martin White
ferris wheel, 2024Ink, watercolor and tempera on Arches 140
Paper dimensions:
220.5 x 223.5 cm / 86.8 x 88 inches
Framed dimensions:
232.4 x 231.1 cm / 91.5 x 91 inches -
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WorksOpen a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Las castas. Casta painting showing 16 racial groupings. Anonymous, 18th century, Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Tepotzotlán, Mexico
Austin Martin White
stack(casta), 2023Ballpoint pen on paperSigned and dated versoPaper dimensions:
64.3 x 58.6 cm / 25.3 x 23.1 inches
Framed dimensions:
69.8 x 64.2 cm / 27.5 x 25.3 inchesB-AMWHITE-.23-0008Austin Martin White's research on Casta painting forms the basis for this work on paper. In 18th century colonial Mexico, the ruling class of Spanish settler generations sought to order...Austin Martin White's research on Casta painting forms the basis for this work on paper. In 18th century colonial Mexico, the ruling class of Spanish settler generations sought to order identities in ways that reflected their interests and channelled the reality of mestizaje, or race mixing. They desired a hierarchy that placed Spaniards in a position over, first, mixed mestizos, then the Indigenous. The sistema de castas became a political and cultural rubric for classifying peoples by their relative proximity to or distance from whiteness. The genre of casta painting emerged to illustrate and help codify such logic.
In his casta-works, White incorporates historical sources and distances himself from them. This approach has personal significance for the artist, whose father recently discovered that his ancestry was not as simple as previously thought. The premise of belonging becomes a source of anxiety, as a hierarchy of subjects dissolves into layers of pigment, acrylic and spray paint on various supports, including a screen mesh often used in construction or sports equipment.Publications
austin martin white, Petzel Gallery, New York, 2025, page 86Exhibitions-
Austin Martin White
The lie, the larp andthe lusophile 10 September — 17 October 2026Explore -
Sweet Sixteen
Celebrating 16 years of Capitain Petzel 7 June — 3 August 2024On the occasion of Capitain Petzel’s sixteenth anniversary, the gallery is excited to present Sweet Sixteen , a group exhibition celebrating the artists who have been integral to its program...Explore -
Austin Martin White
Last Dance 16 September — 22 October 2022It’s all too much, really. There are credit cards to pay down, rent to cough up—never mind the wildfires and the mass shootings. A sense of pressure is building, impossible...Explore
External ExhibitionsOverflow, Afterglow: New York in Chromatic Figuration, 2024
The Jewish Museum, New York
Press-
Do Not Research: "Pieter Schoolwerth & Austin Martin White in Conversation"
Pieter Schoolwerth, Austin Martin White, 22 October 2025 -
Impulse: "Face to Face: September 2025" (Austin Martin White)
Zorica Colic, 30 September 2025 -
TEXTE ZUR KUNST: "Mnemosyne in Neon" (Austin Martin White)
Julia Modes, 30 December 2022 -
Artforum: "Austin Martin White"
Martin Herbert, 1 December 2022 -
Flash Art: "Austin Martin White 'Last Dance' Capitain Petzel / Berlin"
Philipp Hindahl, 20 October 2022 -
032c: "SMASHED COLLARBONES: Berlin Art Week 2022" (Austin Martin White)
Claire Koron Elat, 27 September 2022 -
Welt am Sonntag: "Das Beste ihrer Art: Austin Martin White Bei Capitain Petzel"
17 September 2022
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