Artist Statement

We owned a horse until I was 10 years old. My sister and I rode as children and often accompanied my father on horseback in his yearly hunt in the Rocky Mountains. At the age of 10, we sold our horse and moved to Texas. As I matured as an artist, my fascination with light, weight, movement and color, inspired a body of sculpture, installation and abstraction. As life pressed on horses were still present in my mind, a string of equine works wove in and out of my abstract portfolio.

September 2021, my family and I relocated to the Dominican Republic and in 2023, after 40 years of not riding, I started taking Polo lessons. On the Polo field I faced the juncture between fear and urgency, the demand for rapid precise action, and above all, an unmistakable, familiar equine connection. The effect was profound, exhausting, unveiling self discovery and expression on a new level, also the fusing of my two seemingly irreconcilable bodies of art: abstraction and horses.

Contextualized within equine sports, and most recently the activity of polo, my works portray the athleticism of the equine, the energy of game. The works incorporate kinetic, ghosted forms, layered gesture, classical imagery. They also speak to the legacy and many facets of my life experience, as well the ghosts I face as I ride.

Bio

Rachel White is a studio-based artist producing abstract works in paint on canvas and paper. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts in the College of the Arts at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Parallel to her studio practice and prior to teaching at the University of Florida, she held numerous positions in New York City luxury cosmetics advertising agencies, including Global Director of Image Reproduction at Clinique and Global Director of Creative Operations at Lancome, YSL, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, and Tom Ford Beauty among other brands.

While earning her MFA in Sculpture from Alfred University, Rachel focused on large-scale sculptural installation work, printmaking and digital media. These endeavors have had a lasting effect on her studio practice and advertising career. During her tenure in advertising, Rachel continued to explore the printed image, as her responsibility was largely dealing with retouching and the preparation of luxury imagery for
in-store promotions, print advertising or online promotions.

Rachel is the recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Ox-Bow School of Art Residency, and Art on the Move Art Residency in Detroit. Her work can be found in international collections of art from Milan, New York City, London, Vancouver, Harare to Santo Domingo and Casa De Campo, Dominican Republic.

Rachel lives, works and rides with her husband and two daughters in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. She is self represented.