David Huffman (b. 1963) is a California-based artist whose diverse works from paintings, videos, to installation arts. He received his art education at the New York Studio School and the California College of the Arts & Crafts, and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 1999.
Huffman’s artworks have been collected by many important institutions, such as the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley; the Birmingham Museum of Art; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis; Minneapolis Institute of Art; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Huffman’s second solo exhibition, “The Awakening” will set to run at Miles McEnery Gallery this Fall 2022.
Huffman explores science fiction aesthetics and self-identity issues. He assumes that abstraction can be a political act, especially when it is entangled with the messiness of identity.
Huffman’s paintings have special visual patterns inspired by Kente cloth-African traditional textile practice and his personal experience. Kente cloth itself is not just a fabric, but it is an iconic design that represents “history, philosophy, ethics, oral literature, religious belief, social values, and political thought of West Africa.”
Huffman is also well known as a prominent figure in Afrofuturism that explores the alternative history and future of the African diaspora.
The Awakening (2022) is an abstract composition, that combines the repeated head of sphinx figures, chain hoop-net pattern, and basketballs floating together with the moon or planet. The colorful and geometric Kente cloth patterns also appear in some parts.
In this work, the artist links the legacy of African tradition with the contemporary world. The great sphinx suggests strength and wisdom. The Kente motif symbolizes persistence, love, and harmony. The planet or space object implies the unexplored world like a future, while the everyday life objects show the connections to today’s world.
For the artist, basketball is one of the important elements. Basketball symbolizes the convergence of multiple cultural currents, popular culture, industry, and creativity. In his previous work, Basketball Pyramid which consists of 650 basketballs, he connects “the grandeur and moral ambiguity of the modern game” and “the ancient Egyptian structure”. (Miles McEnery Gallery website quoted The New York Times)
Huffman’s abstraction is unique. Abstractionism usually withdraws art from social contexts to achieve art purity. However, according to Derek Conrad Murray–Contemporary art historian, Huffman’s abstraction style is a “social abstraction”, that balance abstract aesthetics and social issues. His abstraction does not only seek pure aesthetic pleasures but also deals with social urgency.
Huffman’s artworks are really awe-inspiring. David Huffman: The Awakening will be on view at Miles McEnery Gallery, 525 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011.
