David Huffman’s paintings stage allegories of the black American experience. His paintings depict stereotypical signifiers of this history. Landscapes of futuristic dreams or nightmares are always handled with humor. His abstract narratives are layered with references to music, politics, and art history. Huffman studied in New York and San Francisco and has an MFA from California College of the Arts. He received a Eureka Fellowship in 2007, an ARTADIA Foundation Award in 2006, and a Palo Alto Public Arts Commission Award in 2005. His work has appeared in Art Forum, Art Journal, Art Papers, Frieze, Flash Art, Vibe, New York Arts, What’s On in London, the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times and is included in the permanent collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and the Oakland Museum of California, among others. He is represented by Jessica Silverman, San Francisco and the Casey Kaplan, New York.
- 2017
- 2007
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Born 1961 in Berkeley, California.
Lives and works in Oakland, California.
EDUCATION
MFA, California College of the Arts San Francisco, 1999
California College of the Arts and Crafts, Oakland, 1986
Alliance of Independent Colleges of Art, New York Studio School, 1985
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Bay Area Walls: Portals, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Children of the Sun, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, NY
2023
Terra Incognita, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
Odyssey, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022
The Awakening, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
2021
Afro Hippie, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2020
David Huffman, MOAD, San Francisco, CA
2019
Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
2018
David Huffman, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, Ca
2017
Print Project, Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley, Ca
2016
Worlds in Collision solo show, Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Culver City, CA
2014
"Everything went dark until I saw Angels", Patricia Sweetow Gallery San Francisco
2011
Out of Bounds, San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Floating World, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008
Dig it!, Patricia Sweetow, San Francisco, CA solo show
2006
Pyramid Dreams, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005
Land of the New Rising Sun, Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2004
Light Matter, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Dark Matter: The Art of David Huffman, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
2001
Trauma Travel, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999
David Huffman, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998
MFA Exhibition, Calfornia College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA
1997
David Huffman, Selected Paintings, The Renaissance, Santa Monica, CA
Broadsides, Jeff Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2025
Revelation: The Universe of African American Abstraction, National Museum of African American History & Culture, Washington D.C.
2024
Ancestral: Common Origins, Extraordinary Destinies, Museu de Art Brasileira, São Paulo, Brazil
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
Vision & Spirit: Black Artists in the Bank of America Collection, Upcountry History Museum, Greenville, SC
Cosmography, Templon Gallerie, New York, NY
2023
Hoop Dreams: Basketball and Contemporary Art, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
2023
Hoop Dreams: Basketball and Contemporary Art, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
2022
Both Teams Played Hard, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Painters Paint Paintings: LA Version, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Ways of Seeing: Sports and Games, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
The Artist’s Eye: Tammy Rae Carland, David Huffman, Lava Thomas, John Zurier, Berkeley Art Museum & pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2021
Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Recognition and Response: Riso Gatson and David Huffman, Miles McEnery Gallery at The Armory Show, New York, NY
Home & Away, Selections from Common Practice, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
2020
To the Hoop, Basketball and Contemporary Art, Weatherspoon Museum of Art, NC; Ulrich Museum of Art , KS
Personal to Political, The Write Museum, MI
2019
Chase Center and SFMOMA art commission (permanent ), San Francisco, CA
17th and Broadway Building art commission (permanent), Oakland, CA
Ordinary Objects/ Wild Things, de Young Museum, CA
Counternarratives, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
There`s Reality and Then There`s California, NIAD, Richmond, CA
2018
Way Bay, BAMPFA Berkeley Art Museum, CA
Personal to Political, Las Cruces Museum of Art, NM; Art Museum of West Virginia, WV; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL; Museum of Arts and Sciences, FL; Bedford Gallery, CA; DeVos Art Museum, MI
SIDELINED, Galerie Lelong and Co, New York, NY
2017
Where Is Here, MOAD, San Francisco, CA
Public Arts Project, Franz Mayer of Munich, Germany
Residency, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, Ca
Call for Beauty, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2016
Perfect Day, Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Culver City, CA
March Madness, FORT GANSEVOORT, New York, NY
Place, Art Projects International, New York, NY
2015
Portraits and other Likenesses, SFMOMA/ MoAD, San Francisco, CA
Vertigo@Midnight: New Visual Afrofuturisms & Speculative Migrations, Clark Humanities Museum, Pomona College
Color Fields, Bakalar and Paine Galleries, MassArt Boston
Fear Not:Hydrarchy: Power, Globalization and the Sea, San Francisco State University
Artadia Volume 6, The Battery, San Francisco, CA
2014
Fascizzle, Patricia Sweetow Gallery San Francisco
2013
The Shadows Took Shape, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Dissident Futures, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Making Space, Euphrat Museum of Art, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
Fear Not: African aesthetics of faith, belief and resistance, Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY
Space is the place, Guillermo Gomez Pena, David Huffman, Wendy Red Star, and Saya Woolfalk Disjecta, Contemporary Art Center, Portland, OR
2012
At the Edge, Recent Acquisitions, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
25,Celebrating 25 Years of the Barkley Simpson Award, Oliver Art Center,Oakland, CA
Next Generation, Selections by Artists from the 30 Americans Collection, Contemporary Wing, Washington DC
The Calendar’s Tales: Fantasy, Figuration & Representation, College of Fine Arts, Boston University, Boston, MA
Variant Visions: The Art of David Huffman and Irving Norman, Shasta College of Art Gallery, Redding, CA
2011
Bay Area Now 6, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010
Opening show, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
A Childs World, Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA
Opening Group Show, New Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Five Centimeters Short, Bruce Conner, Tracey Emin, David Huffman, Desiree Holman, Erick Bakke, Rupert Goldsworthy Gallery, Berlin, Germany
A Sense of Place: Location/Inspiration, de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
2009
I Do It For My People, Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
A Universe we can believe in,
Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
2008
Looking Back, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007
Passed as Present, Lodeveans Collection, York Gallery, York Castle Museum, York, England
The Fullness of Time, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Artists of Invention: a Century of California College of the Arts, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
2006
Alien Nation, Institute of International Visual Art, London, England
Regarding Truth: San Francisco/Bay Area 2005 Artadia Award Recipients, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2005
Strange Tales, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Drawing Exhibition, Liz Oliveria Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2004
Black Belt, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
Tribulations, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003
Black Belt, The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY
Holiday Rapture, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, NY
2002
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
2001
Freestyle, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Freestyle, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2000
Renditions 2000, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Hybrid, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
1999
Second Bay Area Now, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Heritage Bank, San Jose, CA
1997
Over & Under, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
1996
Southern Exposure 6th Annual Juried Works by Northern California Artists, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Sixth Biennial National Drawing Invitational, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AK
1995
Social Engagements: Observations and Personal Narratives, The Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
History Lesson #52, Watts Tower Art Center, Los Angeles, CA
David Huffman, Selected Paintings, The Renaissance, Santa Monica, CA
Broadsides, Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
AWARDS
2008
Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2006
ARTADIA Foundation Award, San Francisco, CA
2005
Palo Alto Public Arts Commission Award, Bishop Building Mural Project, Palo Alto, CA
1997
Barclay Simpson Award, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
David Huffman
Somatic
2017
Color aquatint with chine colle gampi.
Somerset white
textured paper
Image size 40" x 29"
Paper size 40" x 29"
Edition of 25
David Huffman
Collards
2017
Color spray-paint aquatint on airbrushed paper.
Somerset white textured paper
Image size 40" x 29"
Paper size 40" x 29"
Edition of 25
David Huffman
Rainbow
2017
Color aquatint with airbrushed paper.
Somerset white textured paper
Image size 40" x 29"
Paper size 40" x 29"
Edition of 25
David Huffman
Basketball Pyramid
2007
Color aquatint, spitbite
sugarlift, softground and
hardground etching
Somerset white
textured paper
Image size 27" x 36"
Paper size 37½" x 45"
Edition of 35
David Huffman
Hoop Dreams
2007
Color softground and
spitbite aquatint etching
Somerset white
Image size 14" x 17"
Paper size 21" x 23"
Edition of 25
David Huffman
Ouroboros
2007
Color aquatint, spitbite
sugarlift and softground
etching w/blacklight
sensitive areas
Somerset white
Image size 36" x 27"
Paper size 46½" x 36"
Edition of 35
David Huffman
Remuneration
2007
Softground and spitbite
aquatint etching
Somerset white
Image size 15¼" x 16½"
Paper size 23¼" x 23½"
Edition of 25
David Huffman
UFO
2007
Color softground and
spitbite aquatint etching
with glitter
Somerset white
Image size 7" x 9"
Paper size 14½" x 16"
Edition of 25
David Huffman
Watermelon Pyramid
2007
Color aquatint, sugarlift
and spitbite aquatint
etching with glitter
Somerset white
Image size 20½" x 27½"
Paper size 29½" x 35½"
Edition of 25