Jessica Silverman
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David Huffman: A Brilliant Blackout

David Huffman: A Brilliant Blackout

July 24-September 3, 2025

Jessica Silverman is pleased to present “David Huffman: A Brilliant Blackout,” the artist’s third solo show with the gallery. On view from July 24 to August 29, 2025, the exhibition will present new Afrofuturist paintings from the artist’s acclaimed Traumanaut series.

Huffman is a pioneer in Afrofuturist painting. Blending science fiction, history, and fantasy, Afrofuturism is associated in literature with Octavia Butler and in music to Sun Ra and George Clinton. Themes include space travel, ancestral wisdom, and advanced civilizations led by people of African descent. Unlike Afrofuturist artists like Ellen Gallagher and Wangechi Mutu, Huffman’s works focus on the human (not the alien) and engages with the broad history of post-war painting on canvas.

INSTALLATION VIEW
SELECTED WORKS
ARTIST BIO
OTHER EXHIBITIONS

INSTALLATION VIEW

Installation View Installation View Installation View Installation View Installation View

SELECTED WORKS

David Huffman
Andromeda's Song, 2025
Acrylic, oil, gouache, fabric, color pencil, glitter and spray paint on canvas
77 x 77 x 2 inches / 195.6 x 195.6 x 5.1 cm
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David Huffman, Andromeda's Song
David Huffman
Together We Are More, 2025
Acrylic, oil, gouache, fabric, color pencil, glitter and spray paint on canvas
77 x 77 x 2 inches / 195.6 x 195.6 x 5.1 cm
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David Huffman, Together We Are More
Soul Mother Earth (2025) conveys a gentler mood. Layers of baby blue paint, sparkling glitter, and patterns, large and small, have the utopian feel of puppy love on a sunny day. Swirling brushstrokes and a wiggly amoeba-shaped graphic evoke a primordial soup that teems with potential and transformation—a creation event. At the base of the painting, a noble traumanaut holds a white flag that declares “LOVE.”
David Huffman
Soul Mother Earth, 2025
Acrylic, oil, gouache, fabric, color pencil, glitter and spray paint on canvas
60 x 60 x 2 1/2 inches / 152.4 x 152.4 x 6.3 cm
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David Huffman, Soul Mother Earth
David Huffman
Family, 2025
Acrylic, oil, fabric, photo collage, color pencil and spray paint on canvas
48 x 48 x 2 inches / 121.9 x 121.9 x 5.1 cm
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David Huffman, Family
David Huffman
Under the Moon and the Sun, 2025
Acrylic, gouache, paper collage, textile and spray paint on canvas
60 x 60 x 2 1/2 inches / 152.4 x 152.4 x 6.3 cm
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David Huffman, Under the Moon and the Sun
David Huffman
Soul Mother Earth, 2025
Acrylic, oil, gouache, fabric, color pencil, glitter and spray paint on canvas
60 x 60 x 2 1/2 inches / 152.4 x 152.4 x 6.3 cm
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David Huffman, Soul Mother Earth
David Huffman
Family, 2025
Acrylic, oil, fabric, photo collage, color pencil and spray paint on canvas
48 x 48 x 2 inches / 121.9 x 121.9 x 5.1 cm
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David Huffman, Family
David Huffman
Under the Moon and the Sun, 2025
Acrylic, gouache, paper collage, textile and spray paint on canvas
60 x 60 x 2 1/2 inches / 152.4 x 152.4 x 6.3 cm
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David Huffman, Under the Moon and the Sun
In Cornbread Sky (2025), Huffman depicts a traumanaut zip-lining through a complex multi-dimensional abstraction. Buzzing with energy, the environment is simultaneously outer and inner space; it's a galaxy, an interior design, and a state of mind. Employing yellow and purple zigzag stripes, floral fabric, green expressionist brushstrokes, and the artist’s characteristic basketball net motif, the work is in dialogue with artists as varied as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frank Stella, and Yayoi Kusama.
David Huffman
Cornbread Sky, 2025
Acrylic, oil, fabric, color pencil and spray paint on canvas
72 x 60 x 1 1/4 inches / 182.9 x 152.4 x 3.2 cm
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David Huffman, Cornbread Sky
David Huffman
Ancestors of the Ascending Self, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and collage on Yupo
88 x 64 x 3 inches / 223.5 x 162.6 x 7.62 cm
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David Huffman, Ancestors of the Ascending Self
David Huffman
Celestial Amnesia, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on wood panel
24 x 30 x 1 3/4 inches / 61 x 76.2 x 4.4 cm
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David Huffman, Celestial Amnesia
David Huffman
Fell in Love When I First Saw You, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on canvas
24 x 24 x 3/4 inches / 61 x 61 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Fell in Love When I First Saw You
David Huffman
Communion, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on linen
20 x 26 x 3/4 inches / 50.8 x 66 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Communion
David Huffman
Celestial Amnesia, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on wood panel
24 x 30 x 1 3/4 inches / 61 x 76.2 x 4.4 cm
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David Huffman, Celestial Amnesia
David Huffman
Fell in Love When I First Saw You, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on canvas
24 x 24 x 3/4 inches / 61 x 61 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Fell in Love When I First Saw You
David Huffman
Communion, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on linen
20 x 26 x 3/4 inches / 50.8 x 66 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Communion
Over the past twenty-five years, Huffman has explored African-American experience as a parallel reality of intergalactic travel and foreign atmospheres, featuring a diaspora of spiritually connected “traumanauts.” These Black figures in white spacesuits inhabit timeless worlds that are at once reimagined histories and speculative futures. During the past decade, Huffman has also made expressive, painterly works that he calls “social abstractions” in which he deployed varied aesthetics of Black popular culture, including the visual repertoires of sports, fashion, interior design, and psychedelia.
David Huffman
Not Separate From This, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on wood panel
40 x 30 x 1 3/4 inches / 101.6 x 76.2 x 4.4 cm
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David Huffman, Not Separate From This
David Huffman
Voyager, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and glitter on canvas
24 x 24 x 3/4 inches / 61 x 61 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Voyager
David Huffman
Depths of Time, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on linen
18 x 24 x 3/4 inches / 45.7 x 61 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Depths of Time
David Huffman
Many Rivers, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on linen
18 x 24 x 3/4 inches / 45.7 x 61 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Many Rivers
David Huffman
Meditation 2, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
16 x 20 x 3/4 inches / 40.6 x 50.8 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Meditation 2
David Huffman
Sun at Night, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
12 x 16 x 1/2 inches / 30.5 x 40.6 x 1.3 cm
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David Huffman, Sun at Night
David Huffman
Unforgetting, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on canvas
12 x 16 x 1/2 inches / 30.5 x 40.6 x 1.3 cm
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David Huffman, Unforgetting
David Huffman
Meditation 2, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
16 x 20 x 3/4 inches / 40.6 x 50.8 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Meditation 2
David Huffman
Sun at Night, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
12 x 16 x 1/2 inches / 30.5 x 40.6 x 1.3 cm
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David Huffman, Sun at Night
David Huffman
Unforgetting, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on canvas
12 x 16 x 1/2 inches / 30.5 x 40.6 x 1.3 cm
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David Huffman, Unforgetting
David Huffman
Memories of African Skies, 2025
Acrylic, gouache and mixed ground on linen
21 x 30 x 3/4 inches / 53.3 x 76.2 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Memories of African Skies
David Huffman
Ganymede, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
18 x 14 x 3/4 inches / 45.7 x 35.6 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Ganymede
David Huffman
Boundless, 2025
Acrylic, oil, glitter, fabric, color pencil and spray paint on wood panel
20 x 16 x 1 inches / 50.8 x 40.6 x 2.5 cm
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David Huffman, Boundless
David Huffman
Boundless, 2025
Acrylic, oil, glitter, fabric, color pencil and spray paint on wood panel
20 x 16 x 1 inches / 50.8 x 40.6 x 2.5 cm
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David Huffman, Boundless
A suite of smaller works, such as Lobi and Many Rivers (both 2025), includes African animals and Lobi sculptures as symbolic figures for reconnecting with lost spiritual traditions. Set in surreal landscapes, traumanauts ride elephants and encounter sacred objects beneath neon trees and marbled skies. Both intimate and expansive, the scenes meditate on displacement, reverence, and return.
David Huffman
Lobi, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
12 1/4 x 16 x 3/4 inches / 31.1 x 40.6 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Lobi
David Huffman
Sitting Tree, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
12 x 16 1/4 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 41.3 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Sitting Tree
David Huffman
Sacred Space, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
11 x 14 x 3/4 inches / 27.9 x 35.6 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Sacred Space
David Huffman
Lobi, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
12 1/4 x 16 x 3/4 inches / 31.1 x 40.6 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Lobi
David Huffman
Sitting Tree, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
12 x 16 1/4 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 41.3 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Sitting Tree
David Huffman
Sacred Space, 2025
Acrylic and gouache on canvas
11 x 14 x 3/4 inches / 27.9 x 35.6 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Sacred Space
David Huffman
Initiation, 2025
Acrylic and mixed ground on canvas
12 x 12 1/4 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 31.1 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Initiation
David Huffman
Star Child, 2025
Acrylic and mixed ground on canvas
12 x 16 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 40.6 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, Star Child
In the new Traumanaut paintings of “A Brilliant Blackout,” Huffman merges the two series; his Black astronauts now inhabit cosmic realms that pulse with abstraction and gestural brushwork. These imaginative landscapes not only reflect the formal and material evolution of Huffman’s practice but also set the stage for new voyages of self-discovery and healing.
David Huffman
The Watcher Surveying a Sight, 2025
Acrylic and mixed ground on canvas
12 x 12 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 30.5 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, The Watcher Surveying a Sight
David Huffman
The Recorder, 2025
Acrylic and mixed ground on canvas
12 x 12 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 30.5 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, The Recorder
David Huffman
The Watcher, 2025
Acrylic on canvas
12 x 12 1/4 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 31.1 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, The Watcher
David Huffman
The Watcher Surveying a Sight, 2025
Acrylic and mixed ground on canvas
12 x 12 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 30.5 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, The Watcher Surveying a Sight
David Huffman
The Recorder, 2025
Acrylic and mixed ground on canvas
12 x 12 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 30.5 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, The Recorder
David Huffman
The Watcher, 2025
Acrylic on canvas
12 x 12 1/4 x 3/4 inches / 30.5 x 31.1 x 1.9 cm
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David Huffman, The Watcher
Huffman’s new narrative paintings appear alongside several historic works, including Sideshow (2009). Named after the informal car meet-ups that were a feature of East Oakland in the 1980s and 1990s, this ten-foot-wide work on paper depicts exuberant traumanauts performing donuts and burnouts in Chrysler, Cadillac, and Oldsmobile sedans. Smoke fills the air, and tire marks spiral across pavement framed by cypress and palm trees. Sideshow shares with the new traumanaut works a spirit of freedom and joy.
David Huffman
Sideshow, 2025
Acrylic, oil, glitter and collage on paper
54 x 123 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches / 137.2 x 313.1 x 6.3 cm
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David Huffman, Sideshow
David Huffman
Blue Ice, 2013
Acrylic, oil, spray paint, and glitter on canvas
72 x 60 inches / 182.9 x 152.4 cm
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David Huffman, Blue Ice
David Huffman
Rajangue, 2013
Acrylic, oil, spray paint, gouache, and glitter on canvas
72 x 60 inches / 182.9 x 152.4 cm
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David Huffman, Rajangue
In a time of backlash and widespread civil rights violations by the US government, Huffman’s empowering counter-narratives are more meaningful than ever. With the works in “A Brilliant Blackout,” the artist deploys all the powers of his imagination to visualize emotionally intelligent and socially relevant alternate realities. One can only hope that the self-determination, dignity, and serenity of Huffman’s new traumanauts will be manifest throughout the country, like a self-fulfilling prophecy destined to come true.

ARTIST BIO

David Huffman (b. 1963, Berkeley, CA) has work in the collections of SFMOMA, San Francisco; LACMA, Los Angeles; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA; Studio Museum, Harlem; Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN; Oakland Museum of California; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; San José Museum of Art, CA; Denver Art Museum, CO; Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN; PAFA, Philadelphia, PA; and the Embassy of the United States of America, Dakar, Senegal, among others. Huffman has enjoyed solo exhibitions at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Center, CA; and the de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, CA. In 2024, SFMOMA commissioned Huffman for Bay Area Walls. His work has been included in recent group exhibitions at the National Museum of African American History & Culture, D.C; Museu de Art Brasileira, São Paulo; de Young, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Museum, CA; Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; and Birmingham Museum of Art, AL. He studied at the New York Studio School and received his MFA at California College of the Arts & Crafts, San Francisco. Huffman lives and works in Oakland, CA and teaches at California College of the Arts. He is represented by Jessica Silverman, San Francisco and Casey Kaplan, New York. 

 

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