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DAAS CO-OP's September show features studio work by Roland Ruocco and Wendy White
By Tom Hall
August 25, 2026 at 11:40 AM EDT
Roland Ruocco is a studio artist, but he’s best known for the dozens of murals he’s painted across Southwest Florida.
Wendy White is an abstract impressionist painter, but she’s renowned for her award-winning short film “Roses Are Blind” and one-woman play, “The Jewish Nun,” performed Off-Broadway and internationally.
Their September show, “Counterparts,” at DAAS CO-OP features their studio work.
Viewers can meet and talk with them at the exhibition’s opening reception at DAAS from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4.
Wendy White's 'Soaring Over the Hills' is part of DAAS CO-OP's September 'Counterparts' exhibition. (2048x1294, AR: 1.5826893353941267)
MORE INFORMATION:
In addition to new work, “Counterparts” will feature work Ruocco and White maintain in their inventory at DAAS CO-OP.
Ruocco will include in this exhibit a series he calls 'Earth Counterpart,' an interactive exploration of a virtual Earth-like planet visualized through highly detailed digitally rendered terrain and weather maps. (5834x5835, AR: 0.9998286203941731)
Ruocco will also include in this exhibit a series he calls “Earth Counterpart,” an interactive exploration of a virtual Earth-like planet visualized through highly detailed digitally rendered terrain and weather maps with theoretical scientific data, together with large paintings depicting planetary conditions of various locations.
Another view of Ruocco's interactive 'Earth Counterpart' (1800x1166, AR: 1.5437392795883362)
“This is a world whose presence became clear to me many years ago,” stated Ruocco, who fashions himself an amateur climatologist. “A vibrant, living, pristine world of high vibrational energies, of similar dimensions to Earth, but with vastly different landmasses, climates, flora and possibly fauna. These ['Earth Counterpart'] pieces are much like Earth, sharing the same solar orbital path, but located directly on the opposite side of the sun, therefore obscured from Earth’s view. I have been conducting an exploration for many years and recording my findings in a series of topographic maps, weather studies, drawings, and paintings."
Ruocco received a Broward County Cultural Division grant in 2013 to fund his 'Earth Counterpart' Exhibition.
Ruocco is a realist painter whose work has been influenced by comic book illustration, graffiti and old masters from the Romantic period. (2625x3500, AR: 0.75)
About Roland Ruocco
Roland Ruocco is a Brooklyn, New York, native.
Ruocco attended The High School of Art and Design in Manhattan followed by the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. After moving to South Florida, Roland established a working studio in Lauderdale by the Sea in 2001 and an open studio in Miami’s Wynwood Art District in 2010. At Wynwood, Ruocco took an active role in the vibrant neighborhood art scene, which included Art Basel each December.
On the East Coast of Florida, Ruocco exhibited at Miami Art Basel in 2023, in three shows at Rolando Barrero’s Box Gallery in West Palm Beach (2022, 2018), Art Spectrum (where he exhibited paintings from his Sub Tropic series), Art Fest in West Palm Beach, RW Art Gallery in Miami (2015 & 2016) and LED-illuminated wall sculptures at Art Palm Beach at the Palm Beach Convention Center in 2013 and 2015 as well as the biennial International Kinetic Art Exhibition in Boynton Beach (where he displayed his LED, audio/video driven machines “Digital Deity” and “Silicone Oracle.”
Ruocco's landscapes and skyscapes capture the ethereal interplay of light and color, inviting viewers into moments of serenity and wonder. (1026x750, AR: 1.368)
Ruocco is a realist painter whose work has been influenced by comic book illustration, graffiti and old masters from the Romantic period. He works in a diverse array of media and styles. His landscapes and skyscapes capture the ethereal interplay of light and color, inviting viewers into moments of serenity and wonder.
“I convey my perception of the world around me through artworks that involve diverse subject matter, artistic styles and media — sometimes, depending on my mood and inspiration, identifying problems and offering solutions, other times, focusing on the beauty of nature, or perhaps industrial design,” Ruocco has stated. “For example my 'Sub Tropic' series of paintings are an expression of the natural beauty of South Florida’s light, form, and color. My 'Modern Times' series speaks of provocative social and political issues often through satire, while the 'New Earth' series of artworks describes creating heaven on Earth by achieving a state of higher consciousness, or, travel with me to 'Earth Counterpart,' a virtual world that I describe through detailed maps, paintings, and drawings.”
Ruocco at work on mural of Dr. Ella Mae Piper that is part of the Buck's Backyard Mural at McCollum Hall in Dunbar (2724x3022, AR: 0.9013898080741231)
Ruocco is a 2022 and 2023 City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant recipient and participated in group shows at the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center in 2018 and 2019.
In contrast, his mural work and narrative paintings channel the spirit of the communities in which they are located and society at large. Whether painting a meditative figure by a lake or a graffiti-laden subway car, Ruocco strives to create art that resonates on both a personal and collective level.
Ruocco with fellow Buck's Backyard muralist Eric Schlake on site at McCollum Hall. (4379x3439, AR: 1.2733352718813609)
Since relocating to Southwest Florida in 2018 and joining the Fort Myers Mural Society, Ruocco has completed more than 50 mural projects in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bokeelia, Pine Island and Estero. Among the most notable are the large “Gesturing Hand,” “Dunbar Strong,” “Captain CJ Fishing Boat,” “City of Cape Coral Tribute” and several panels of the Buck’s Backyard Mural at historic McCollum Hall in the Dunbar neighborhood of Fort Myers.
Visual artist and screen and play writer Wendy White (960x960, AR: 1.0)
About Wendy White
Wendy White was born in Rockaway Beach, New York.
White's palette and writings are strongly influenced by her early environment of living by the sea. Her father was a painter and while she was growing up, she and her twin brother would frequently model for him as muses.
After her father became blind during her teens, White became her “father’s eyes.” She received a full academic scholarship to Barnard College of Columbia University, where she fulfilled her medical school requirements hoping to find a cure for her father’s blindness. Her father regained his vision in one eye during her sophomore year at the same time she was studying painting with her mentor at Barnard, the abstract expressionist Milton Resnick. Due to Resnick’s continual inspiration and encouragement she rediscovered the light from her childhood, and began fully developing the abstract impressionist style paramount in her work today.
White has enjoyed exhibitions in galleries in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Finland, Buenos Aires, Switzerland and beyond. (500x753, AR: 0.6640106241699867)
Inspired by the old masters as well as modern-day expressionists, White has enjoyed exhibitions in galleries in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Finland, Buenos Aires, Switzerland and beyond, selling over 150 canvases in more than 250 exhibitions to date.
Her work can be found in more than 130 private collections around the world, as well as corporate collections (e.g. Chemical Bank in New York, the U.S. Coast Guard at Governors Island, New York, the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey and Lynn University in Boca Raton), public art collections (a Broward County Cultural Division Mural at Port Everglades, a World Trade Center Path Mural at the World Trade Center in New York and the VKI Institute for Water Environment at Horsholm, Denmark) and the permanent collections of The New England Museum for Contemporary Art in Westport, Connecticut, The Paterson Museum of Art in Paterson, New Jersey, and Museo de Arte Moderne de Buenos Aires in Argentina.
White was one of the judges at the Fort Myers Film Festival's TGIM screening in November 2021. (3307x3145, AR: 1.051510333863275)
Her one-woman show, “The Jewish Nun,” debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has been performed to sold-out audiences Off Broadway at 59e59 in New York City, at the GAB Studio in Miami and at The New Light Theatre in Fort Lauderdale.
White's short film 'Roses are Blind' won accolades and awards at film festivals around the world. (502x304, AR: 1.6513157894736843)
Her short film “Roses are Blind” won accolades and awards at film festivals around the world, including World’s Best Short Story/Writer, World’s Best Director, World’s Best Filmmaker and World’s Best Poster at the 2022 World’s Best Filmmaker Festival; Best Thriller at the Cannes International Cinema Festival 2021; Best Thriller at the New Jersey Film Awards in September, 2021; Best Thriller at the Golden Lemur Film Festival in Lisbon, Portugal; Best Thriller Short at the Austin International Film Festival; Best Thriller at Silk Road Film Awards; Best Short Thriller at Florida Shorts 2021; Best Psychological Short at Indie Movies Spark Film Fest 2021; Best Thriller at Rome International Movie Awards 2021; Best Thriller Short at Big Sur Film Festival 2021; Best Woman in Jeopardy Film at the Culver City Film Festival in Los Angeles; Best Psychological Thriller at the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival; Best NYC Short at the International New York Film Festival; and Best Short Film at the Chautauqua International Film Festival.
White at opening night of the 2020 Fort Myers Film Festival (641x661, AR: 0.9697428139183056)
In addition to her work in film and play writing, White has co-founded the nonprofit New Light Foundation, with her husband and co-exhibiting artist, Roland Ruocco. Their mission is to serve the community by providing cultural outreach through the arts and education. New Light donates a percentage of its art sales and theater ticket sales to its scholarship fund, with the goal of helping young people go to college regardless of their financial circumstances.
More recently, White was appointed U.S. Festival Ambassador to the Bridge of Peace Film Festival in Paris and India’s Saath Jio Foundation, as well as Treasurer of the National Society of Arts and Letters in Florida. She continues to foster her dream of having international cultural exchanges in order to create a universal bridge of peace between all the countries of the world.
"To paint with oils 'till the painting radiates light itself" is White's goal, seeing each painting as having a destiny, which is not the artist’s to keep. “The art of painting is a gift which I received in order to survive, and I have learned to help others by utilizing this gift for the better good of the world,” concludes White.
About DAAS
DAAS CO-OP Art Gallery is located at 10051 McGregor Blvd., Suite 104 in Fort Myers (Alliance for the Arts campus). The gallery’s business hours are Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the first Friday of each month.
Information about the venue can be found at daascoop.com or by calling 239-955-0422.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
Wendy White is an abstract impressionist painter, but she’s renowned for her award-winning short film “Roses Are Blind” and one-woman play, “The Jewish Nun,” performed Off-Broadway and internationally.
Their September show, “Counterparts,” at DAAS CO-OP features their studio work.
Viewers can meet and talk with them at the exhibition’s opening reception at DAAS from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4.
Wendy White's 'Soaring Over the Hills' is part of DAAS CO-OP's September 'Counterparts' exhibition. (2048x1294, AR: 1.5826893353941267)
MORE INFORMATION:
In addition to new work, “Counterparts” will feature work Ruocco and White maintain in their inventory at DAAS CO-OP.
Ruocco will include in this exhibit a series he calls 'Earth Counterpart,' an interactive exploration of a virtual Earth-like planet visualized through highly detailed digitally rendered terrain and weather maps. (5834x5835, AR: 0.9998286203941731)
Ruocco will also include in this exhibit a series he calls “Earth Counterpart,” an interactive exploration of a virtual Earth-like planet visualized through highly detailed digitally rendered terrain and weather maps with theoretical scientific data, together with large paintings depicting planetary conditions of various locations.
Another view of Ruocco's interactive 'Earth Counterpart' (1800x1166, AR: 1.5437392795883362)
“This is a world whose presence became clear to me many years ago,” stated Ruocco, who fashions himself an amateur climatologist. “A vibrant, living, pristine world of high vibrational energies, of similar dimensions to Earth, but with vastly different landmasses, climates, flora and possibly fauna. These ['Earth Counterpart'] pieces are much like Earth, sharing the same solar orbital path, but located directly on the opposite side of the sun, therefore obscured from Earth’s view. I have been conducting an exploration for many years and recording my findings in a series of topographic maps, weather studies, drawings, and paintings."
Ruocco received a Broward County Cultural Division grant in 2013 to fund his 'Earth Counterpart' Exhibition.
Ruocco is a realist painter whose work has been influenced by comic book illustration, graffiti and old masters from the Romantic period. (2625x3500, AR: 0.75)
About Roland Ruocco
Roland Ruocco is a Brooklyn, New York, native.
Ruocco attended The High School of Art and Design in Manhattan followed by the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. After moving to South Florida, Roland established a working studio in Lauderdale by the Sea in 2001 and an open studio in Miami’s Wynwood Art District in 2010. At Wynwood, Ruocco took an active role in the vibrant neighborhood art scene, which included Art Basel each December.
On the East Coast of Florida, Ruocco exhibited at Miami Art Basel in 2023, in three shows at Rolando Barrero’s Box Gallery in West Palm Beach (2022, 2018), Art Spectrum (where he exhibited paintings from his Sub Tropic series), Art Fest in West Palm Beach, RW Art Gallery in Miami (2015 & 2016) and LED-illuminated wall sculptures at Art Palm Beach at the Palm Beach Convention Center in 2013 and 2015 as well as the biennial International Kinetic Art Exhibition in Boynton Beach (where he displayed his LED, audio/video driven machines “Digital Deity” and “Silicone Oracle.”
Ruocco's landscapes and skyscapes capture the ethereal interplay of light and color, inviting viewers into moments of serenity and wonder. (1026x750, AR: 1.368)
Ruocco is a realist painter whose work has been influenced by comic book illustration, graffiti and old masters from the Romantic period. He works in a diverse array of media and styles. His landscapes and skyscapes capture the ethereal interplay of light and color, inviting viewers into moments of serenity and wonder.
“I convey my perception of the world around me through artworks that involve diverse subject matter, artistic styles and media — sometimes, depending on my mood and inspiration, identifying problems and offering solutions, other times, focusing on the beauty of nature, or perhaps industrial design,” Ruocco has stated. “For example my 'Sub Tropic' series of paintings are an expression of the natural beauty of South Florida’s light, form, and color. My 'Modern Times' series speaks of provocative social and political issues often through satire, while the 'New Earth' series of artworks describes creating heaven on Earth by achieving a state of higher consciousness, or, travel with me to 'Earth Counterpart,' a virtual world that I describe through detailed maps, paintings, and drawings.”
Ruocco at work on mural of Dr. Ella Mae Piper that is part of the Buck's Backyard Mural at McCollum Hall in Dunbar (2724x3022, AR: 0.9013898080741231)
Ruocco is a 2022 and 2023 City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant recipient and participated in group shows at the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center in 2018 and 2019.
In contrast, his mural work and narrative paintings channel the spirit of the communities in which they are located and society at large. Whether painting a meditative figure by a lake or a graffiti-laden subway car, Ruocco strives to create art that resonates on both a personal and collective level.
Ruocco with fellow Buck's Backyard muralist Eric Schlake on site at McCollum Hall. (4379x3439, AR: 1.2733352718813609)
Since relocating to Southwest Florida in 2018 and joining the Fort Myers Mural Society, Ruocco has completed more than 50 mural projects in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bokeelia, Pine Island and Estero. Among the most notable are the large “Gesturing Hand,” “Dunbar Strong,” “Captain CJ Fishing Boat,” “City of Cape Coral Tribute” and several panels of the Buck’s Backyard Mural at historic McCollum Hall in the Dunbar neighborhood of Fort Myers.
Visual artist and screen and play writer Wendy White (960x960, AR: 1.0)
About Wendy White
Wendy White was born in Rockaway Beach, New York.
White's palette and writings are strongly influenced by her early environment of living by the sea. Her father was a painter and while she was growing up, she and her twin brother would frequently model for him as muses.
After her father became blind during her teens, White became her “father’s eyes.” She received a full academic scholarship to Barnard College of Columbia University, where she fulfilled her medical school requirements hoping to find a cure for her father’s blindness. Her father regained his vision in one eye during her sophomore year at the same time she was studying painting with her mentor at Barnard, the abstract expressionist Milton Resnick. Due to Resnick’s continual inspiration and encouragement she rediscovered the light from her childhood, and began fully developing the abstract impressionist style paramount in her work today.
White has enjoyed exhibitions in galleries in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Finland, Buenos Aires, Switzerland and beyond. (500x753, AR: 0.6640106241699867)
Inspired by the old masters as well as modern-day expressionists, White has enjoyed exhibitions in galleries in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Finland, Buenos Aires, Switzerland and beyond, selling over 150 canvases in more than 250 exhibitions to date.
Her work can be found in more than 130 private collections around the world, as well as corporate collections (e.g. Chemical Bank in New York, the U.S. Coast Guard at Governors Island, New York, the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey and Lynn University in Boca Raton), public art collections (a Broward County Cultural Division Mural at Port Everglades, a World Trade Center Path Mural at the World Trade Center in New York and the VKI Institute for Water Environment at Horsholm, Denmark) and the permanent collections of The New England Museum for Contemporary Art in Westport, Connecticut, The Paterson Museum of Art in Paterson, New Jersey, and Museo de Arte Moderne de Buenos Aires in Argentina.
White was one of the judges at the Fort Myers Film Festival's TGIM screening in November 2021. (3307x3145, AR: 1.051510333863275)
Her one-woman show, “The Jewish Nun,” debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has been performed to sold-out audiences Off Broadway at 59e59 in New York City, at the GAB Studio in Miami and at The New Light Theatre in Fort Lauderdale.
White's short film 'Roses are Blind' won accolades and awards at film festivals around the world. (502x304, AR: 1.6513157894736843)
Her short film “Roses are Blind” won accolades and awards at film festivals around the world, including World’s Best Short Story/Writer, World’s Best Director, World’s Best Filmmaker and World’s Best Poster at the 2022 World’s Best Filmmaker Festival; Best Thriller at the Cannes International Cinema Festival 2021; Best Thriller at the New Jersey Film Awards in September, 2021; Best Thriller at the Golden Lemur Film Festival in Lisbon, Portugal; Best Thriller Short at the Austin International Film Festival; Best Thriller at Silk Road Film Awards; Best Short Thriller at Florida Shorts 2021; Best Psychological Short at Indie Movies Spark Film Fest 2021; Best Thriller at Rome International Movie Awards 2021; Best Thriller Short at Big Sur Film Festival 2021; Best Woman in Jeopardy Film at the Culver City Film Festival in Los Angeles; Best Psychological Thriller at the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival; Best NYC Short at the International New York Film Festival; and Best Short Film at the Chautauqua International Film Festival.
White at opening night of the 2020 Fort Myers Film Festival (641x661, AR: 0.9697428139183056)
In addition to her work in film and play writing, White has co-founded the nonprofit New Light Foundation, with her husband and co-exhibiting artist, Roland Ruocco. Their mission is to serve the community by providing cultural outreach through the arts and education. New Light donates a percentage of its art sales and theater ticket sales to its scholarship fund, with the goal of helping young people go to college regardless of their financial circumstances.
More recently, White was appointed U.S. Festival Ambassador to the Bridge of Peace Film Festival in Paris and India’s Saath Jio Foundation, as well as Treasurer of the National Society of Arts and Letters in Florida. She continues to foster her dream of having international cultural exchanges in order to create a universal bridge of peace between all the countries of the world.
"To paint with oils 'till the painting radiates light itself" is White's goal, seeing each painting as having a destiny, which is not the artist’s to keep. “The art of painting is a gift which I received in order to survive, and I have learned to help others by utilizing this gift for the better good of the world,” concludes White.
About DAAS
DAAS CO-OP Art Gallery is located at 10051 McGregor Blvd., Suite 104 in Fort Myers (Alliance for the Arts campus). The gallery’s business hours are Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the first Friday of each month.
Information about the venue can be found at daascoop.com or by calling 239-955-0422.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.