Typography in Fine Art

I remember an art history professor briefly mentioning Wayne White in a lecture a few semesters back, and was surprised after looking over his body of work. His incorporation of typography and letterforms into his fine art pieces adds an interesting deviation from the typical painting.

Brief bio from his website:

“ Wayne White is an American artist, art director, illustrator, puppeteer, and much, much more. Born and raised in Chattanooga, Wayne has used his memories of the South to create inspired works for film, television, and the fine art world. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University, Wayne traveled to New York City where he worked as an illustrator for the East Village Eye, New York Times, Raw Magazine, and the Village Voice. In 1986, Wayne became a designer for the hit television show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and his work was awarded with three Emmys.

More recently, Wayne has had great success as a fine artist and has created paintings and public works that have been shown all over the world. His most successful works have been the world paintings featuring oversized, three-dimensional text painstakingly integrated into vintage landscape reproductions. The message of the paintings is often thought-provoking and almost always humorous, with Wayne pointing a finger at vanity, ego, and his memories of the South.”

Here are a few examples of his works:

http://waynewhiteart.com/index.php?/project/word-paintings/