In the Press
Lux Art Institute Welcomes Next Resident Artist David Humphrey
ENCINITAS, Calif. — (October 5, 2010) — Lux Art Institute, San Diego’s first LEED certified interactive art destination, will welcome New York City-based David Humphrey as the next artist-in-residence of the 2010/2011 Season.
Humphrey, a senior critic at Yale School of Art, will turn Lux’s 2010/2011 Season on its head with paintings that employ kitsch, landscape, figuration and iconography in an incisive commentary on the intersection of desire and consumerism in middle-class America.
From November 11 through December 4, 2010, Humphrey, also known for his installation and multimedia art, will be living and working at Lux as he creates a wall painting linking Lux’s architecture and his exhibit in a dramatic, unexpected way. Visitors can “see art happen” while he is in studio and view his show, featuring examples of his painting and sculpture, through January 1, 2011.
Humphrey creates canvases in which a cavalcade of surreal, kitsch images and exuberant, Play Doh-like hues provide a humorous and sometimes biting narrative of bourgeois malaise. A dedicated collector of amateur paintings that he finds online, in thrift and antique stores, and at flea markets and yard sales, Humphrey loosely paraphrases anonymous efforts with his own renditions of landscapes, still-lifes and portraits in which elements of the original artworks have been mutated and exaggerated to yield intensely layered images in terms of color, shape, ideas and discourse. Many of Humphrey’s pieces depict historical giants such as Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower (both amateur painters), who join the artist’s lineup of kitsch subject matter: kittens, poodles, ice cream cones, clowns, Christmas trees and puffs of snow.
“Having painter/sculptor/critic/scholar/philosopher David Humphrey on site will be a mind-bending joy that all of us at Lux look forward to,” said Lux Director Reesey Shaw. “From his imitation of amateurs to combining kitsch with the classic, Humphrey’s journey takes you around the bend and through the woods. We’re glad that in November and December, the woods he’ll find himself in will be ours!”
Humphrey received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MA in liberal studies from New York University. His first show was with the McKee Gallery in 1984, and he has since been exhibiting nationally and internationally. Humphrey’s work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, the Carnegie Institute, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two New York Foundation Grants and the Rome Prize. He wrote a column for Art Issues from 1989-2002 and has written extensively on art for exhibition catalogs and art periodicals, including Art in America and Flash. An anthology of his writing, Blind Handshake, was released in 2009 by Periscope Publishing. Humphrey was appointed senior critic at Yale School of Art in 2007.
Lux Art Institute, located in Encinitas, Calif., is redefining the museum experience with the region’s only artist-in-residence program that invites artists to live and work on site, while producing a commissioned work of art – start to finish. This one-of-a-kind institution welcomes visitors to not only “see art,” but also to “see art happen.”
Throughout each year, Lux hosts several significant regional, national and international artists who participate in its residency program. Visitors from across the country are able to participate in exclusive liaison-led tours, providing intimate access to the artist-in-residence, the artist’s exhibition and the museum’s permanent collection of indoor and outdoor art. Lux also offers a wide range of innovative programming for all ages.
The recipient of the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s top design award, the Grand Orchid, and the first art museum in California awarded LEED certification for new construction, Lux is located alongside one of Southern California’s few remaining coastal wetlands. The five-acre site also overlooks the San Elijo Lagoon and is surrounded by a wildlife preserve that stretches to the Pacific Ocean.
Through its Phase II Capital Campaign, Lux plans to add more than 25,000 square feet of galleries and classrooms. Once completed, the new building will also feature a hilltop plaza and a series of gardens climbing between the galleries and the Artist Pavilion.
Lux Art Institute is located at 1550 South El Camino Real in Encinitas, Calif. Hours are Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and cost is $10 for two visits. For more information about donations, memberships, volunteer opportunities and more, visit http://www.luxartinstitute.org or call 760-436-6611.