Jack White Exhibiting Artist, Panelist African American artists have long been recognized for their contributions to mainstream art forms such as music, dance, and theater. Abstract impressionist Jack White has pushed African American painting into as many mainstream venues as any contemporary artist and has raised awareness of black painter! in the larger arts community. The significance of White's work is confirmed by its inclusion in the collection of discriminating and well-known art collector and jazz great Donald Byrd, whose holdings constitute a veritable who's who of African American art.

White's influence is as geographically diffuse as it is widely acclaimed. He has served up at least 36 solo exhibitions in places as widely separated as New York, New York and Pine Bluff, Arkansas. His sway is felt especially on college campuses in the Eastern United States, where he has shown in the galleries of such schools as Ohio State, Syracuse, and North Carolina. Numerous museums and other organizations include White's works in their permanent collections. Among them are the Schomberg Cultural Center, the Tampa Museum of Art, and the Arkansas Arts Center.

White began his more than forty-year career in art as an art and education major at Morgan State University in Baltimore and with graduate studies a Syracuse University. Today, he describes his current exhibit, Beyond and Behind the Mask, as inspired by the art and artifacts of the Kingdom of Benin, - formerly known as West Africa's "Slave Coast." He says of the exhibit, "I believe it to be my most meaningful and significant work so far. Like most human beings I am curious about my ancestors; as a black American, I can know only that they came from Africa." Art gives him the power to explore the lives of those ancestors and expose audiences, minority and mainstream, to his discoveries.

           White is always progressing through his new works; some of which are shown above.