For the London-based artist James White, household detritus has an inherent charge. “I’m interested in crime scene photography and insurance claim photography, where there’s an implied narrative,” he says. His black-and-white oil paintings of the past two decades similarly nod to life outside the frame, training the gaze on a haphazard pile of hangers or bent venetian blinds. “House Plant Paintings,” a new exhibition at the Manhattan gallery Rodder, centers on these leafy cohabitants. “They sit quietly in the corner of our domestic spaces and witness all the dramas and non-dramas that carry on around them,” he says. The nine paintings on view depict offhand glimpses in exacting detail. In one work, a scraggly spider plant brushes up against Hello Kitty and Glossier stickers; in another, the window behind a potted succulent catches the camera flash. The artist paints onto brushed aluminum panels, leaving a strip of exposed metal at the bottom — an effect that underscores the sterility of the grayscale foliage. A thin coat of varnish amplifies the glossy photorealism, but the paintings stand in opposition to the endless scroll of digital imagery. Like the plants themselves, which reward sustained attention, this series draws you in to notice the pale brushstrokes along thirsty stems or the lacy shadows cast onto the wall. “It’s a way of pressing the pause button,” says White. “House Plant Paintings,” at Rodder in New York, runs through April 18; rodder.nyc.