Jim White – Anything Can Be Redeemed
September 24 - November 22
North Floor Gallery
This exhibition round includes works provided by Jim White which will be on view in the North Floor Gallery from September 24 - November 22, 2025. Lowe Mill A&E invites patrons and art lovers to join us for Open Studio Night, a building-wide experience when our over 150 studios will be open to the public. The evening also includes receptions for all seven of our gallery spaces. This series gives the public a chance to meet and interact with visiting artists and discuss their work as it is on display and available for purchase. Come out, enjoy a pleasant evening, and maybe you’ll find that special piece of art that speaks to you! The Open Studio Night reception is Saturday, November 22 from 5-7 pm.
About the exhibit:
Some years back I shipped a show of my assemblage makings over to Dublin, Ireland to appear in this high dollar art gallery on the grounds of Trinity College.
On the customs form the powers that be asked for a detailed breakdown of what I was shipping, so I just wrote ‘garbage’.
See, when I was a kid I got yelled at a lot for digging through other people’s garbage piles. Some said it was unsanitary, others undignified. I didn’t much care what they thought, as certain items in said garbage piles spoke to me, asking to be liberated from their ignominious fate.
Of course, they got a pejorative term for people who dig in garbage piles, dragging home mountains of worthless, discarded objects—they call those folks ‘hoarders’. There’s popular intervention shows on TV that follow the sad lifestyles of such individuals. I watched a few episodes and winced from time to time.
Despite certain superficial similarities, I surmised that I’m definitely not a hoarder. Why? Because it’s not hoarding if you put what you find to use—which I do. Approaching it that way, you’re not some sick-o digging in filthy garbage piles, you’re just a low income artist out there collecting free art supplies.
And after three or four decades of gathering up quite the mountain of such free art supplies, I find myself in possession of a truly magnificent stash of unwanted American esoterica. And from time to time when I do dare venture into certain wildly overcrowded rooms here in this old farm house where I live, said items of esoterica, they start calling out, like sirens luring me nearer the rocks of creativity.
Next thing I know I got a bottle of wood glue in one hand and a C-clamp in the other. Paint brushes are brandished willy-nilly as visual connections are hastily forged. It’s a form of low brow magic.
I never set out with any vision or plan—I’m not the slightest bit conceptually minded. There is no deep message intended by this work, with the exception of the notion that given the right circumstances, anything, living or not, can be redeemed.
So far as I can tell, I was put here on this earth to manifest those circumstances. And so I do.
About the artist:
There’s no conventional marketplace category that even remotely describes what I do, unless consummate outsider could be considered a commercial genre.
For the last thirty years I’ve split my time and creative vision between working as a musician (eight studio albums, five side projects), a visual artist (exhibitions both nationally and internationally) and a writer (2 books, 1 Pushcart Prize for short fiction).
At the unlikely age of thirty eight I was “discovered”, then championed by David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame. Prior to that I worked in obscurity, so it was a big paradigm shift.
Songs of mine have been featured in film and TV, including prime slots in the Breaking Bad franchise. My debut novel Incidental Contact was described by Mojo Magazine as “unputdownable”.
I live a fairly reclusive life out in rural Georgia, and am father to two amazing daughters, one of which is rising country music star Willow Avalon.
Art is vastly different and can be edgy in both form and content. This installation may include imagery or themes that are thought-provoking, challenging, or unsettling.
We provide the walls of the Mill as a space for artists to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech. However, the content displayed does not necessarily represent the beliefs of all Mill artists or Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment as a whole.
The views and opinions expressed in this artwork are solely those of the artist and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of Lowe Mill, LLC. Lowe Mill, LLC does not endorse, support, or promote any political, religious, or social viewpoints that may be interpreted from this work.
In the spirit of the Constitution, this work is presented as part of the artist’s right to share their perspective. We encourage you to view with an open mind. If you prefer not to engage, please feel free to bypass this installation.