The Great Wave, a solo exhibition by British artist Douglas White, is an immersive exploration of material transformation, latent energy, and the blurred boundaries between the natural and the industrial. The show features monumental sculptures and process-driven works, reflecting White’s engagement with found materials and his ability to animate them into forms that feel both uncanny and alive. On display at Leila Heller Gallery, the exhibition will be open to the public until 6 May 2026.
The centrepiece of the show is White’s reinterpretation of the Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai. Rather than directly reproducing the famous woodblock image, White translates its underlying tension into sculptural form. His The Great Wave (after Hokusai) comprises fragments of blown-out tyres. Collected from roadsides across the globe, they carry within them the physical traces of movement, friction, and rupture. The resulting sculpture captures a moment of suspended force, a cresting surge that has not yet broken. As visitors move around the work, they encounter a palpable sense of anticipation, as though standing under a looming and imminent release of energy.
The transformation of discarded matter into something monumental is the basis of White’s practice. The tyre fragments, once part of systems of mobility and consumption, are reconfigured into a form that evokes the dynamics of ocean waves or geological formations. Thus, White suggests a continuity between human-made and natural systems. The wave, a symbol of the power of nature, becomes a reflection of contemporary conditions marked by ecological strain and technological acceleration.
A similar tension animates the pieces from the Black Palm series, also on view. Rising within the gallery space, these sculptures remind one of towering, almost mythical trees. Yet their construction, again from tyre rubber, renders them unmistakably artificial. The Black Palm seems a hybrid organism, simultaneously vegetal and industrial, suggesting a world in which organic growth and manufactured matter have become inseparable. The transformation of waste into something resembling life introduces a poetic ambiguity: these forms are at once remnants of global consumption and new, speculative entities.
Also on display are works that foreground processes of energy and transformation in more subtle ways. In the Lichtenberg Drawings, White uses high-voltage electrical discharges to burn lightning-like patterns into wooden surfaces. The marks emerge through the interaction of energy and material resistance. Meanwhile, the Black Sun series develops through electrochemical processes, as copper accumulates in charged baths to form crystalline structures over time. These artworks emphasise duration, accumulation, and the interplay between control and unpredictability.
White approaches sculpture as a form of material alchemy. His practice is driven by an intuitive engagement with found objects (tyres, wood, metal, and other remnants of industrial life), which he subjects to processes that reveal unexpected forms and textures. The resulting art pieces occupy a liminal space between destruction and regeneration, decay and growth. This duality is rooted in the exhibition’s conceptual framework, the idea that transformation is not a linear progression but a complex interplay of opposing forces.
The title of the show thus operates on multiple levels. While it references Hokusai’s image, it also evokes a broader sense of living within a moment of accumulated tension. The suspended wave serves as a metaphor for contemporary experience: an awareness of forces gathering at scales that are difficult to fully comprehend or control. Whether ecological, technological, or geopolitical, these forces shape the present in ways that are both visible and unseen, much like the energies that animate White’s sculptures.
About the artist
Douglas White (b. 1977, the UK), a significant voice in contemporary sculpture, received a BFA in Fine Art (2000) from the Ruskin School of Art, followed by an MA in Sculpture (2005) from the Royal College of Art.
What distinguishes White’s practice is his ability to uncover a sense of vitality within discarded objects. By reworking materials that are often overlooked or deemed obsolete, he reveals their latent expressive potential. This approach aligns with a broader artistic interest in sustainability and reuse, yet White’s work resists straightforward categorisation as ecological art. It operates on a more ambiguous terrain, where beauty emerges from processes of destruction and transformation.
White’s creations have been featured in many exhibitions, including Paysage_Paysages (Musee Dauphinois, Grenoble, France, 2020); Arvore (Praça Adolpho Bloch, São Paulo, Brazil, 2019); Portraits of My Father as a Horseshoe Bat (solo) (Galerie Valerie Bach, Brussels, Belgium, 2017); Iconoclasts (Saatchi Gallery, London, the UK, 2017); and Sparkling Like the Surface of the Ocean at Night (Garage, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2016), among others. The artist’s work is part of prominent collections such as the David Roberts Art Foundation (London), the Saatchi Collection (London), and the Cass Sculpture Foundation (UK), to name a few.
To get more information about The Great Wave, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
You might also be interested in viewing In the Wake of Time in the DIFC and Guardian Elevation by Xavier Magald.
