Biography

John’s formal training in art began while he was attending Hoover Middle School in West Oakland. Unfortunately, his middle school art classes did not seriously challenge him nor contribute much to his artistic growth, causing him to abandon all hope of ever growing as an artist or sculptor. And then, a miracle occurred. In his first art class at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, he was introduced to the teachings of Richard Davies, a dedicated and talented high school art teacher. Under his astute tutelage, John was exposed to a whole new approach to art, which emphasized geometric abstraction, creative expression, and constructivist art. Armed with this new approach, John entered and won a major Oakland Unified School District-sponsored art competition and placed either first, second or third in several other local art competitions.

Whitehead pursued his post-secondary education in economics and art, first at UC, Berkeley, CA, where he obtained his B.A. (with high honors) in economics and art, and then at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he received his M.A. in economics with magna cum laude distinction. During his professional career, teaching college level economics and statistics, he continued to develop his keen interest in and passion for contemporary art, and more specifically sculpture.

From 2010 to 2023, Whitehead’s body of work mainly consisted of totemic sculptures built from fine-grained wood and mirror-polished stainless-steel sculpture with varying geometric shapes, patterning curves, and negative spaces. The design, boundaries and illusory movements of many of these pieces were influenced by David Smith’s “Cubi” series and Fletcher Benson’s “Folded-Circle” series. Recently, Whitehead has been broadening his sculptural work to include sculpture integrating the geometric aspects of his past works with a variety of contemporary African diasporic and cubist artistic paradigms.

Statement

I am a contemporary geometric abstract sculptor. My sculptural works are the result of geometric abstraction and are primarily abstract expressions of beauty, freedom, human progress, modern architecture, and cultural empowerment. Moreover, my approach to fine art sculpture composition and design evolves from the neo-constructivist, abstract expressionist, and totemic sculpture traditions. It is heavily influenced by Fletcher Benton’s “Folded-Circle” series and David Smith’s “Cubi” series. Stylistically, my work contains a variety of geometric shapes, repeated forms, and negative spaces that exhibit movement, energy, symmetry, and balance.

I view my work as an evolving process that seeks to achieve three objectives: 1) to provide sculpture that is imaginative and original; 2) to provide sculpture that reflects meticulous craftsmanship and structural strength; and 3) to provide sculpture with durable materials, which can reflect, absorb, or blend with their surrounding environments.