Carl White: Koan

This Liverpool-born, Calgary-based artist juxtaposes classical European painting traditions with the anti-establishment gestures of punk rock and skateboarding culture. His recent paintings reference the Zen Buddhist concept of the koan, a paradox to be meditated upon in order to relinquish reason and find enlightenment. White seeks to “provoke doubt” and question painting’s relevance by overlaying what look like skillfully rendered homages to Old Masters with graffiti and other defacing marks or text.