Figure it Out: New Work by bARBER and Watie White

Watie White and bARBER: Two Person Art Show

When: Friday, Sept 26 from 5 to 8pm

Where: Joslyn Castle

ART TALK with Watie and bARBER (led by Adrian Duran, UNO art history chair) at 7:00pm in the Castle’s Music Room

All are welcome at the free opening reception on Friday, Sept 26th! Meet the artists and learn about their inspiration and process!

Other opportunities to see the exhibit include attending public tour or an event at the Castle before October 5th.

Watie White is a contemporary American public artist, painter, and printmaker based in Omaha, Nebraska. Watie is known for his socially engaged public art that incorporates community voices. He holds an MFA from American University and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since relocating to Omaha in 2006, Watie’s Studio and public practice has created over 30 site-specific, socially engaged projects leading to collaborations with over a dozen schools and more than a hundred murals with communities throughout the Midwest. Watie’s work has been featured in exhibitions at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR), the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, MN), Museum of Nebraska Art (Kearney, NE), Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha, NE), the Telfair Museums (Savannah, GA), The Mint Museum (Charlotte. NC), The Frist Center for the Arts (Nashville, TN) and the Dixon gallery and Gardens (Memphis, TN).

bARBER is a recipient of 3ARTs’ Chicago 2024 Ignite Fund for groundbreaking and experimental visual art-based works and is a resident of the School of Art Institute’s 2024 Tower A-I-R program. He has participated in prominent events such as the Evanston Art Center Biennial (2025), EXPO CHICAGO (2025 and 2023), the MdW Art Fair, The Other Art Fair (2023 and 2024), the Chicago Artists Coalition’s 2023-24 HATCH program, and residencies across the country and globe.Among his accolades are the 2020 Biennial Artist Research Fellowship at Sam Fox Island Press, University of Washington in St. Louis, and a feature in New American Paintings, Issue #150 and being acquired by notable collectors like Dan Gilbert’s Family of Companies in Detroit.