Sep 14th 2012

Shane Huffman: Sense and Sensibility

@ 65GRAND

1369 W Grand Ave., Chicago IL

Opening Friday, September 14th, from 6PM - 9PM

On view through Saturday, October 13th

65GRAND is pleased to present Sense and Sensibility, Shane Huffman’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Huffman’s work is concerned with the areas where science and alchemy converge, where the measurable and quantifiable spills over into the emotional and mystical. Huffman primarily works in photography due to its literal connection to his subject matter. Photographs are created when light and chemicals react, making it the perfect medium to explore interests in the cosmic as well as functions of the body. Additionally the artist doesn’t exclusively work with cameras and film, making his experiments with the materials of photography exist somewhere between lab work and sorcery.

For Sense and Sensibility, Huffman presents new work from the series “Our Experiences are the Accumulation of Exposure” begun in 2002. These abstract grayscales are created in the darkroom by incrementally exposing portions of silver gelatin photographic paper using only the light produced by the enlarger. This leads from light gray to total black. Huffman explains, “In this way of making, darkness is the excess of light, contrary to what we believe in our daily experience.” Accompanying these is a constellation of works, an ensemble of images Huffman took himself, darkroom manipulations, found images and other mixed media components such as a mirror painted black save for a 1/8 sliver running around the border. and a balloon containing a single breath of air. The exhibition presents, “bipolar representations of the same lived experiences.” Huffman compares it to the Jane Austin novel about two sisters, one who lives life guided by reason, the other experiencing life through her senses.

Shane Huffman lives and works in Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions include Rowley Kennerk Gallery, Chicago in 2010 and Shane Campbell Gallery, Oak Park, IL in 2009. Group exhibitions include Re: Chicago, DePaul University Museum, Chicago in 2011; A Unicorn Basking in the Light of Three Glowing Suns, Devos Art Museum, Marquette, MI and Min., Regina Rex Gallery, Brooklyn, NY in 2010; The Great Poor Farm Experiment, The Poor Farm, Manawa, Wisconsin; and Mapping the Self, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 2008. Huffman is included in a group exhibition curated by photographer Dawoud Bey as part of EXPO CHICAGO, on view September 20 – 23.

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