Thrives on Light: The Western Gaze of David Mason

Arte

2248 Broadway, New York, New York, NY 10024, New York, NY, NY 10024, Armenia

24/05/2025 - 24/06/2025

Exhibition Title:
Thrives on Light: The Western Gaze of David Mason
David Mason Solo Exhibition
Curators: Samantha Lee / Xi Wang
Exhibition Dates: May 24 – June 24, 2025
Organizer: Whitelock Art Center, New York
Exhibition Introduction:
Between light and shadow, within layers of texture woven from colored pencil, metallic leaf, and ink, American contemporary artist David Mason presents a deeply personal visual language. In his solo exhibition Thrives on Light: The Western Gaze of David Mason at Whitelock Art Center, New York, viewers are invited to immerse themselves in the spiritual imagery and cultural essence of the American West, captured through his meticulous hand.
David Mason, a California-based artist, has spent decades exploring the nuances of pictorial expression. His unique technique—blending colored pencil, acrylic, ink, and metallic leaf—creates works that are both visually radiant and emotionally resonant. The finesse in his control over mixed media reveals not only technical mastery but also a gentle yet resolute narrative voice. In his compositions, figures and animals, natural scenes and symbolic motifs unfold with rich storytelling, constructing a poetic space suspended between reality and dream.
Featured works such as Denim, Just Looking, The Little Prince, and Buckaroo draw from the lifestyle and spiritual symbols of the American West. Cowboys, animals, attire, festivities, and regional elements are condensed into evocative imagery. These works are more than homage to cultural tradition—they are acts of re-vision and reconstruction. In Mason’s hands, the West is no longer solely the mythic land of pioneers and frontiers. It becomes a spiritual territory where solitude, dignity, courage, and illumination converge.
Notably, Mason’s treatment of light goes beyond the formal—it is deeply spiritual. Through subtle gradations of brightness, the interplay of reflective foil, and the tension between background and subject, light becomes a narrative thread. Each painting seems illuminated by an unseen, inner beam. This philosophy of “thriving on light” is the central idea that gives the exhibition its name.
Thrives on Light: The Western Gaze of David Mason not only showcases the artist’s refined approach to image-making and material, but also reflects his profound meditation on culture, identity, and memory. This exhibition is a journey of the soul—spanning geography and time—that invites us to rediscover the layered emotions and evolving meanings behind the myth and reality of the American West.
—Curators: Samantha Lee / Xi Wang Written on May 16, 2025