Mike Whiting

Weber State University’s Dumke Arts Plaza is the outdoor site for a 15-year retrospective of the sculpture by Mike Whiting, Level Up, whose works are created within the pixelated aesthetic of retro video games. Whether exhibited outside museums, in galleries, in public plazas, on the street, or in the wild, Whiting’s works are disarming, playful, incongruous, and comfortable. They are constructed from welded steel, distressed, and finished with automotive paint. Some can fit on a shelf or be scaled to stand high against a skyline. The works in the retrospective are designed to be outside and interact over time with the elements. These flatly but brightly colored works intrude into the landscape–-as all public sculpture does–-but also welcome viewers with a comforting, nostalgic wink. 

The surprise and philosophical artfulness of the works is the curious blend of their daring and familiarity. As the culture enters into a phase of looking at old technology with surprising fondness (new films like Tetris and Blackberry are prime examples of the trend), Whiting’s images have begun to take on the burnished sensibility of the ennobling of a ground-level, digital vocabulary. From San Marcos, California, the artist received his MFA from the Pratt Institute in New York and has been exhibited throughout the country. (Level Up continues through August 4, 2023.)