FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Exhibition Dates: February 24 - March 27, 2004
Solo Exhibition:
DAVID HUFFMAN - TRIBULATIONS
Opening reception: Thursday, April 1, 5:30 - 7:30p.m.
Patricia Sweetow Gallery is pleased to present the paintings of David
Huffman in his exhibition of new paintings, Tribulations. April 1 - May 15, 2004. Reception for the artist
is April 1, 2004 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. This exhibition is in conjunction with
the University of Santa Clara, deSaisset Museum exhibition, Dark Matter: The
Art of David Huffman, April 17 - August 1, 2004. Professor Bridget R. Cooks,
will lecture on the work of David Huffman, Thursday, May 13 at 6 pm at the
deSaisset Museum. Call
408-554-4528 for details and directions.
Bay Area artist David Huffman (b.1963), has expressed his idiosyncratic
universe of Traumabot's, and Trauma Smiles in an unfolding epic of violence as
the cultural norm. The cataclysmic conflicts portrayed in his paintings
metaphorically parallel our nation/state, religious, racial and personal
tragedies. His language is one of alienation and urgency, where characters that
are marked with the Minstrel's smile exist in an environment of isolation
fearing phenomena that are of their own making.
Although the paintings graphically depict a culture of apprehension,
Huffman's palette and brushwork seduce the viewer with a surface of muted
tones, watermarks that dissolve in a mat, powdered surface of liquid
atmosphere. Roberta Smith, art critic for the New York Times, wrote of
Huffman's paintings in a November 28 review of The Studio Museum in Harlem
recent exhibition Blackbelt "David
Huffman's paintings of black astronauts and action figures drifting in surfaces
of soft, smoky plumes and swirls suggest a familiarity with Chinese landscape
painting and supply one of the show's few sensuous moments".
Through interviews, reviews, essays and statements, Huffman's work has
been discussed and written about in many publications." In the exhibition
catalog of Freestyle, The Studio
Museum in Harlem, Eungie Joo
writes, "Imagine traveling to the outskirts of infinity to arrive in a
Journey to the Center of the Earth-territory of bodily space, replete with
internal organs, digestive gases, and glandular operations. The organs can
process disease, infection and sorrow. They are awareness...."In
comparison, Huffman articulates his ideas through his paintings, often
demanding the viewer draw their own conclusions about influence and substance.
"By recontectualizing the minstrel into super-robots, the concentration
has been intellectual and material accomplishments, thus leading to a soul-less
spiritual crisis. Their sense of self has become an artifact from denial of
self, from obsessive material success, all cast and proffered by others.
Although the stereotype of caricature has been removed, the Trauma smiles
continue to inhabit the mask of the minstrel."
Huffman's work is represented in public and private collections.
For further information and press materials please contact the gallery
at 415-788-5126.
Gallery hours: Tuesday
through Friday 11:00 - 5:30 pm, Saturday 11 - 5.
Email: info@patriciasweetowgallery.com