Born 1963, Berkeley, CA
New York Studio School, New York, NY, 1984-1985
BFA, California College of the Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA, 1986
MFA, California College of the Arts & Crafts, San Francisco, CA, 1999
Lives and works in Oakland, CA
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, NY [forthcoming]
2023
Hoop Dreams: Basketball and Contemporary Art, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse NY
Odyssey, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, CA
2022
The Awakening, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
Terra Incognita, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
Fair Game, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA
2021
Afro Hippie, Berkeley Art Center, CA
2019
David Huffman, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
2018
Urban Vernacular, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017
Print Project, Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley, CA
2016
Worlds in Collision, Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Culver City, CA
2014
Everything Went Dark Until I Saw Angels, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011
Out of Bounds, San Francisco Art Commission Galleries, San Francisco, CA
Floating World, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008
Dig It!, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
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, CA
2001
Trauma Travel, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999
David Huffman, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998
MFA Exhibition, California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA
1997
David Huffman, Selected Paintings, The Renaissance, Santa Monica, CA
Broadsides, Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
Crafting Radicality: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA [forthcoming]
A Growing Season, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, CA
What Has Been and What Could Be: The BAMPFA Collection, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, CA
A Point Stretched: Views on Time, San José Museum of Art, CA
Hoop Dreams: Basketball and Contemporary Art, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
2022
A Point Stretched: Views on Time, San José Museum of Art, CA
BOTH TEAMS PLAY HARD, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Beyond Identity, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, CA
Painters Paint Paintings: LA Version, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Ways of Seeing: Sports and Games, Birmingham Museum of Art, AL
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press,” Bakersfield Museum of Art, CA
The Artist’s Eye, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
2021
Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism, Oakland Museum of California, CA
Ambiguities of Blackness, Lizzetta LeFalle Collins, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA.
Home & Away: Selections from Common Practice (curated by John Dennis, Dan Peterson, and Carlos Rolón), Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
2020
To the Hoop: Basketball and Contemporary Art, Weatherspoon Museum of Art, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC; traveled to the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI
2019
Ordinary Objects / Wild Things, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Counternarratives, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
See Something, Say Something, Museum of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA
There’s Reality and Then There’s California, NIAD Art Center, Richmond, CA
2018
Way Bay, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, CA
Personal to Political: Celebrating African-American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Las Cruces Museum of Art, Las Cruces, NM; Art Museum of West Virginia University, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; Museum ofArts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, FL; and DeVos Art Museum, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI
Sidelined (curated by Samuel Levi Jones), Galerie Lelong & Co, New York, NY
Facebook, Public Project, Freemont, CA.
All Power To The People, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA.
2017
Where is Here (curated by Jacqueline Francis, Kathy Zarur), Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
Public Arts Project, Franz Mayer of Munich, Munich, Germany
Call for Beauty (curated by 3.9 Art Collective), Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2016
Perfect Day, Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Culver City, CA
March Madness (curated by Hank Willis Thomas and Adam Shopkor), FORT GANSEVOORT, New York, NY
Place, Art Projects International, New York, NY
2015
Portraits and Other Likenesses, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; traveled to the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
Vertigo@Midnight: New Visual Afrofuturisms & Speculative Migrations, Claremont Colleges, CA
Color Fields, Bakalar and Paine Galleries, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
Hydrarchy: Power, Globalization and the Sea, Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco State University, CA
Artadia, The Battery, San Francisco, CA
2013
The Shadows Took Shape, The Studio Museum in Harlem, 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 Gómez-Peña, David Huffman, Wendy Red Star, and Saya Woolfalk, Disjecta Contemporary Arts Center, Portland, OR
2012
At the Edge (curated by Larry Rinder), Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, CA
Celebrating 25 Years of the Barkley Simpson Award, Oliver Center, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
Next Generation, Selections by Artists from the 30 Americans Collection, Contemporary Wing, Washington, D.C.
The Calendar’s Tales: Fantasy, Figuration & Representation (curated by Lynne Cooney), Boston University, 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 Child’s World (curated by Stephanie Learmonth), Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
Opening Group Show, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Five Centimeters Short: Bruce Conner, Tracey Emin, David Huffman, Desirée Holman, Erick Bakke,” Rupert Goldsworthy Gallery, Berlin, Germany
A Sense of Place: Location/Inspiration, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, CA
2009
I Do It For My People, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
A Universe We Can Believe In, Oliver Art Center, California College of Arts, Oakland, CA
2008
Looking Back, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007
Passed as Present, Lodeveans Collection, York Gallery, York Castle Museum, UK
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, CA
Alien Nation (curated by John Gill, Jens Hoffmann, and Silane Tawadros), Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, UK; traveled to Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, Norwich, UK; and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
2006
Artadia Award Recipients, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2005
Strange Tales, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004
Black Belt, Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA
Black Belt, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Tribulations, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003
Holiday Rapture, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2002
San José Institute of Contemporary Art, San José, CA
Retrofuturist (curated by Berin Golonu), New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
2001
Freestyle, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Freestyle, Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA
2000
Renditions 2000, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Hybrid, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Second Bay Area Now, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Heritage Bank, San José, CA
1997
Introducing…, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Over, Under, and Around, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Social Engagements: Observations and Personal Narratives, The Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1996
6th Annual Juried Works by Northern California Artists (juried by Thelma Golden), Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Sixth Biennial National Drawing Invitational, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Grants and Awards
2021
Elected Artist Trustee (Board member), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
2020
American Academy of Arts and Letters, Jacob Lawrence Award
2019
Permanent Commission, Chase Center and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Permanent Commission, 17th & Broadway Apartments, Oakland, CA
2008
Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2005
Artadia Foundation Award, San Francisco, CA
Palo Alto Public Arts Commission Award, Bishop Building Mural Project, CA
1998
Barclay Simpson Award, California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA
Catalogs and Publications
2021
Barnette, Sadie. Sadie Barnette: Legacy and Legend, edited by Ciara Ennis and Rebeca McGrew, Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, 2021.
2020
Drew, Kimberly and Wortham, Jenna (ed). Black Futures. Penguin Random House, 2020.
Momin, Shamim M. (ed). In Plain Sight. Henry Art Museum, 2020.
Reinhardt, Kathleen (ed). 1 Million Roses for Angela Davis. Mousse Publishing, 2020.
Sargent, Antwaun (ed). Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists. Distributed Art Publishers, 2020.
2019
Beegan, Gerry and Gustafson, Donna (ed). Angela Davis — Seize the Time. Hirmer an University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Selected bibliography
2023
Bravo, Tony. “S.F. gallery showcases otherworldly works by 2 Bay Area artists.” The San Francisco Chronicle Datebook. February 4, 2023.
2022
Andew Keh, The Art World Loves Basketballs, New York Times,
Eshun, Ekow, In the Black Fantastic, London: Thames & Hudson, 223-224.
Rinder, Lawrence, “David Huffman: The Awakening,” essay in David Huffman: The Awakening, New York: Miles McEnery Gallery.
Porges, Maria, “David Huffman, Museum of the African Diaspora,” Artforum, September.
Glen Helfand, Pioneering Afrofuturist, Square Cylinder
Gina Gotsill, Terra Incognita exhibition, San Francisco Examiner
Sorapuru, Julian E.J., “At MoAD, David Huffman’s ‘Terra Incognita’ Explores Black Trauma Among the Stars,” KQED Public Media, 1 April.
2021
Cunningham, Vinson, “A Healing Force” in Rico Gatson / David Huffman: The Armory Show, New York: Miles McEnery Gallery.
Common Practice (Book), SKIRA
Nassier, Jérémie, When Basketball Inspires(Book), Paris, France: Trajectoire Studio.
Wilson, Emily, “How Berkeley’s Countercultural Movement Shaped Artist David Huffman,” Hyperallergic, 3 October.
Renny Pritikin, Afro Hippie exhibition review, Square Cylinder.
Sarah Hotchkiss, Afro Hippie exhibition review, KQED Arts.
2020
TO THE HOOP, exhibition catalog, Emily Stamey.
2019
Conrad Murray, Derek, “David Huffman’s Social Abstractions” in David Huffman, New York: Miles McEnery Gallery.
San Francisco Chronicle, Chase Center New Public Art, SFMOMA, Golden State Warriors.
2015
Baker, Kenneth, “MoAD’s New Show Expands What ‘Portraits’ Mean,” San Francisco Chronicle, 7 May.
2014
Pandian, Ananth, “Grizzlies Transform a Court in Memphis,” Slam, 29 October.
2013
Cotter, Holland, “Going Beyond Blackness, Into The Starry Skies,” New York Times, 14 November.
Pescovitz, David, Varnelis, Kazys, et al., Dissident Futures, San Francisco, CA: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Keith, Naima J., and Zoé Whitley, The Shadows Took Shape, New York, NY: Studio Museum in Harlem.
Geary, Linda, Studio Visit (book of 100 studio visits), Berkely, CA: Edition One Books.
Fear Not: African Aesthetics of Faith, Belief, and Resistance, New York, NY: Museum of Biblical Art.
2012
Murry, Derek C., “Floating World,” Art in America, 6 April.
Beal, Stephen, David Kasprzak, and Larry Rinder, 25, Celebrating 25 Years of the Barkley Simpson Award, Oakland, CA: Oliver Art Center.
2011
“‘Next Generation’ at Contemporary Wing,” Washington City Paper, 7 February.
Sussman, Matt, “The SF Arts Commission’s SHIFT asks America to Put Aside Its Discomfort and Talk About Race,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, 11 October.
Baker, Kenneth, “‘Bay Area Now’ at Yerba Buena Center, Art Review,” San Francisco Chronicle, 21 July.
2010
Baker, Kenneth, “Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,” San Francisco Chronicle, 14 December.
2009
Buuck, David, “David Huffman at Patricia Sweetow Gallery,” Artweek, February.
2008
Murray, Soraya, “David Huffman Dig It! And Jefferson Pinder Afro Cosmonaut/Alien (White Noise) Patricia Sweetow Gallery,” Exit Express Magazine, December.
Nakasone, Marisa, “‘Afro Futurist’ David Huffman at Patricia Sweetow Gallery,” San Francisco Examiner, 11 November.
“5th Annual New Prints Review,” Art on Paper, Vol 13, No. 2, November/December.
Cover Image, Artletter: Crocker Art Museum Members Magazine, March/April.
2007
“Fleishhacker Eureka Fellowship Awards,” Press Release, The Fleishhacker Foundation.
Artists of Invention: A Century of CCA, Oakland, CA: California College of Arts and Oakland Museum of California.
2006
Helfand, Glen, “David Huffman,” Artforum, December.
Gascoigne, Laura, “Nod and a Wink from Outer Space,” The Tablet, 2 December.
Hubbard, Sue, “It’s Life But Not As We Know It,” The Independent, 30 November.
Teeman, Tim, “Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind,” The Times, 29 November.
Vellodi, Kamini, “Creative Space,” What’s On in London, 16 November.
Martin, Stacy, “Pyramid Dreams: Ziggurats of Basketballs and Asiatic Traumatauts,” San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Baker, Kenneth, “Huffman In His Stride,” San Francisco Chronicle, 7 October.
Kemp, Arnold J., “Funk Upon a Time,” essay for Patricia Sweetow Gallery.
Hicks, Cinqué, “What is AfroFuturist Art?,” Africana, April.
Baker, Kenneth, “Artist Profile, David Huffman,” San Francisco Chronicle, Datebook, 10 February.
2005
Hanratty, Maureen, “Strange Tales at the Luggage Store Gallery: A Fresh Look at the Comic Aesthetic,” SF Station.
2004
Lidgus, Sarah, “San Francisco, California,” Art Papers, September.
Spalding, David, “David Huffman / Patricia Sweetow,” Flash Art, July-September.
Baker, Kenneth, “Mixing Painting and Identity Politics with ‘Traumabots’,” San Francisco Chronicle, 8 May.
Koppman, Debra, “David Huffman and Enrique Chagoya,” Artweek, April.
Helfand Glen, “David Huffman,” Artforum, April.
Eleey, Peter, “Blackbelt,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, Frieze Contemporary Art & Culture, March.
2003
Smith, Roberta, “A Cornucopia of Cultural Exchange, Beginning With a Martial Arts Hero,” The New York Times, 28 November.
2002
Cooks, Bridget, “David Huffman: Cosmic Justice,” The International Review of African American Art.
2001
Freestyle, New York, NY: The Studio Museum of Harlem.
“The New Masters,” Vibe Magazine.
Foret, Claire, “Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem,” NY Arts.
Baker, Kenneth, “Stereotypes in Outer, Inner Space: Huffman’s Minstrels Explore New Places,” SF Chronicle, 5 September.
Kemp, Arnold J., “If Sambo Were a UFO,” Art Journal, Fall.
2000
Bay Area Now 2, San Francisco, CA: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Gladman, Renee, “On Trauma,” in Bay Area Now 2, San Francisco, CA: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
“Bay Area Now II,” Kult, Avanteguarde Creative Italy.
Joo, Eungie, “Profile of Three ‘Bay Area Now 2’ Artists,” Artweek, January.
1999
Bakke, Eric, “Notes From San Francisco,” NY Arts.
Helfand, Glen, “Kim Brown, David Huffman,” San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Scherr, Apollinaire, “Over There,” East Bay Express, 1 January.
1997
Cebulski, Frank, “Four Artists at Patricia Sweetow Gallery,” Artweek, September.
Roche, Harry, “David Huffman,” Bay Guardian.
Selected Collections
Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona State University, Tempe Campus, AZ
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, CA
Birmingham Museum of Art, AL
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, CA
Denver Art Museum, CO
Embassy of the United States of America, Dakar, Senegal
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Oakland Museum of California, CA
Palo Alto Arts Center, CA
San Francisco Arts Commission, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
San José Museum of Art, CA
The Studio Museum, Harlem, New York, NY
