Plus Gallery

“I’ve been using the materials of the automobile, steel and automotive paint, in my work for a long time. Now, I’ve thrown the whole car in there... and a few extra hoods.” - Mike Whiting, 2019

Mike Whiting’s vocation as an artist achieved peak status in Colorado in 2018 with Pixelated at the Denver Botanic Gardens, an unprecedented solo exhibition widely praised as one of best in the region that year. Pixelated’s impressive display of large-format outdoor sculpture occurred following a period in which Whiting focused almost exclusively on monumental outdoor works, resulting in a wide array of forms that reflect the ambitious, cohesive intent behind the artist’s practice. Whiting shifted gears for Daily Driver, a multi-faceted undertaking marking the artist’s first gallery solo exhibition since 2010.

In Daily Driver Whiting brings his fascination with car culture to life with a variety of new creations, both adhering to his general practice while pushing into distinct new conceptual territory. The show is anchored by a miniature city, flanked by vehicles common to the streets. Surrounding this minimalist representation of commuting life are an assortment of wall-mounted forms that include new fabricated steel canvases, flowing with stripes, as well as car-hoods the artist has renovated to enhance their individual character. Whiting’s ambitions to extrapolate on his theme extend outside the gallery as well, where his full-scale, unauthorized version of a “BMW art car” greets visitors for the opening, cunningly following in the footsteps of Calder in an altogether different manner than with his recent display at Denver Botanic Gardens. Within this conglomeration of artifacts, both new and old, one will find the influence of racing stripes, highway lines, the wiring harness inside a car or even stripes on a sock.