David Huffman
Dark Logic, 2015.
About:
California-based artist David Huffman gained recognition as a supporter of the moderately controversial, yet subtly delivered subjects in art. His art is engaged in cultural acuity and focused on social diversity, one that is made apparent through the imbalanced state of the world. The upcoming exhibition follows Huffman’s special treatment of a very specific subject matter – the iconography of a basketball, which tacitly signifies the politics of race, addressing the African Diaspora and those who are usually associated with “handling” the basketball. This unusual motive is reinterpreted in many ways, over and over again, throughout the entire series. The replicas of the basketball are intertwined with other motifs, and most of them could be rendered as abstract alternatives to the basketball itself.
I can’t breath, 2015.
Basketball Pyromid, 2011.
MLK, 2007
West Oakland, 2015.
Huffman’s paintings seem to be a meeting point for abstraction and a form of symbolic figuration, leaving just the right amount of space needed for the metaphorical to arise. That said, it can be easily recognized that basketball serves as a metaphor for all the possible difficulties and victories related to the black social uplift, and it is also a symbol for dreams of wealth, fame and acceptance. However, this subject is brought up in a sophisticated, delicate manner, and although the motive reappears in many different versions and numerous times in each of these paintings, its presence is not as apparent without a proper introduction.(quotes from WideWalls magazine)