Skies and Schisms 21, 2018
22 x 30 inches | Gouache on paper
Nathan Huff produces paintings, drawings, and sculpture that create freewheeling narratives: personal stories of suspending gravity, traversing emotional vertigo, and sorting reservoirs of memories.
He earned an MFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach in 2010, a BA in art education from Azusa Pacific University, and has also studied art in Italy, France, the UK, and Spain. Actively exhibiting on the west coast, Huff’s installations have been featured in solo exhibitions at UCR Culver and Sweeney Galleries (Riverside), Los Angeles at D.E.N. Contemporary (West Hollywood), Minthorne Gallery (Oregon), Sullivan Goss Gallery (Santa Barbara), Gallerie View (Salambo, Tunisa), group exhibitions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, JK Gallery, Lotus Land, Wildling Museum, Westmont Ridley Tree Museum of Art, and the Angels Gate Cultural Center. His works are in the Permanent Collections of the Culver Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Hilbert Museum of California Art, and Cal State University Long Beach. In 2011 he was invited by the state department as a guest curator with Art in Embassies for the US Ambassador in New Zealand to curate an exhibition "Encountering Place." Nathan has taught classes with art students at CSU Long Beach, LA Southwest College, Biola University, and Azusa Pacific University as an adjunct lecturer. Currently he teaches as an associate professor of art at Westmont College in Santa Barbara.
WITH A VISUAL LANGUAGE ALL ITS OWN, Nathan Huff’s third solo exhibition at Sullivan Goss is now open. Many will remember the ladders, small boats, and oaks that populated his earlier works. They return again, though subtly changed, evoking even more clearly earthly transience and a pull to the ethereal realms.
IF THE JOB OF THE ARTIST IS TO REVEAL NEW EXPERIENCES, the exhibition Where the Wild Things Grow has succeeded. Even if you've been to the magnificent Ganna Walska Lotusland gardens, you'll see the place anew thanks to 28 different artists who have transferred their Lotusland experience onto paper, sculpture, and paintings. If you listen carefully, you can hear the plants talk.
Nathan Huff's exhibition at the Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, which runs until 2019 September 24, is titled The Stories We Tell Ourselves. The young Californian artist relies for his visual creations on elements spotted in nature and around him. In this exhibition are gathered works that include certain realities belonging to the plant world (trees, plants but no animals this time) to which are added representations in a reduced model of things produced by man (boats, ladders, etc.).
ENGAGINGLY FAMILIAR, YET TEAMING WITH OFF THE WALL DYNAMICS, Nathan Huff: The Stories We Tell Ourselves will be center stage at Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery's 1st Thursday on August 1st from 5 to 8pm.
EDUCATION
2010 MFA, Drawing and Painting, California State Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
2006 Watts Atelier, Encinitas, CA
2003 BA Art, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 NATHAN HUFF: Forest for the Trees, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara CA
2021 NATHAN HUFF: Almost Here, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara CA
2020 Meandering the Edges Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara, CA
2019 NATHAN HUFF: The Stories We Tell Ourselves, Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2017 Sadness, Sleep, and Sanctity New Media Gallery, Ventura College, Ventura, CA
2016 Memories Moving Walls Minthorne Gallery, George Fox University, OR
Playing Idioms again SBCAST G Space, Santa Barbara, CA
2015 Playing Idioms Ridley Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 Domesticating Disturbances Culver and Sweeney Galleries, UCR, Riverside, CA
2013 Tension/Intention L Gallery, Azusa Pacific University, CA
2011 Downward Digging the Wrong Side Up, Biola University, La Mirada, CA
Excavations and Constructions Six Pack Projects, Phantom Galleries, Long Beach
2010 Nathan Huff, Sculptures and Drawings D.E.N. Contemporary, West Hollywood, CA
Liminal States Oceanside Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA
LIMBO, and other Conversations DDR Projects, Santa Anna, CA
The Launch. Absurd Excavations; B Werby Gallery CSULB, Long Beach, CA
2009 Gravity and More. Absurd Excavations; A Gatov Gallery, CSULB, Long Beach CA
2007 American Painters Galerie View, Salammbo, Tunisia
AWARDS
2020 Artist Grant and Residency Vermont Studio Center, Vermont
2019 Resident Fellow, Aix en Provence, IAU
2016 Professional Development Grant. Westmont College
2014 Professional Development Grant. Westmont College
2010 Outstanding Leadership in the Academic Community, Commencement CSULB
2009 Marylin Werby Scholarship Recipient, CSULB, Long Beach, CA
2008 Dean’s Purchase Award, College of the Arts California Sate University Long Beach, CA
2004 First Place, Juried Exhibition, Escondido Arts Colors of Fall, Partnership, Escondido, CA
2003 Outstanding Arts Graduate, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA
2002 Third Place, Juried Exhibition, San Giovanale Quarter, Orvieto, Italy
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Selections from the Permanent Collection of Contemporary Art, Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2020 In the Meanwhile: Recent Acquisitions, SBMA, Santa Barbara, CA
Stary Nights: Visions of the Night Sky, Wildling Museum, Solvang CA
Summer Salon, Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Hobson’s Choice, Torrance Art Museum, Digital Exhibition
2019 The Drawing Room, Vita Art Center, Ventura, CA
2018 Mentors and Makers Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Mostra Barrington Center for the Arts, Wenham, MA
2017 Lauridsen Project: Les Chansiones des Roses George Fox University, OR
2016 Still Life, from the permanent collection Sweeny Gallery, Riverside, CA
UFOLOGY Outpost Projects, Joshua Tree, CA
Tales that must be Told Cypress College, Los Angeles, CA
Nature Humanity, Dream South Bay Contemporary, San Pedro, CA
Fresh stART, Barker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA
2015 Flock, curated Nancy Gifford, Lotus Land, Santa Barbara, CA
Sculpture Show ArtsFund Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2014 ArtWatch 2014: Young Careers SB to LA, Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Storytellers, curated Jeff Rau, Green Gallery, Biola University, La Mirada, CA
Miniscule Flower, Pepper Gallery, Pasadena, CA
Unexpected Activity Angel,s Ink Gallery, San Pedro, CA
Teachers Break to Create, Casa Magazine Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2013 Connect and Collect, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, CA
Familiar/Unfamiliar, Manual History Machines, Casa Agave, Joshua Tree, CA
Peaceable Kingdom Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
Refresh: Furniture and Fiber, Zask Gallery, Palos Verdes, CA
2012 Case Study Los Angeles II, Jaus Gallery and Concrete Walls, Santa Monica
NOW, Curated Hilary Norcliff Expo Building, Long Beach, CA
Human Presence JK Gallery, Culver City, CA
2011 Liminal Examinations, PS Zask Gallery, Palos Verdes, CA
Encountering Place Art in Embassies, Wellington, NZ
2010 Open Show 2010, Los Angeles Art Association, LA, CA
Mass Emergencies Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA
Tubular! Curated Doug Harvey, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Objectivity, Curated Chris Alegria, Merlino Gallery CSULB, Long Beach, CA
Liminal States, Trebor and Nevets Gallery, Long Beach, CA
4th Annual Ranch Show, The Ranch. Escondido, CA
Café of Dreams, The Queen Mary Royal Theatre, Long Beach, CA
Pocket Change, Werby Gallery CSULB, Long Beach, CA
2008 OverHung, Concrete Walls, Los Angeles, CA
Approaching Memory, The Loft, San Pedro, CA
The Liminal, Curated Chris Alegria Dutzi Gallery, CSULB, Long Beach, CA
Liminal Moments, The Ranch, Escondido, CA
Growth and Other Realities, Portfolio, Long Beach, CA
Insights, University Art Museum, CSULB, Long Beach, CA
Graduate Student Exhibition, 301 Pine, Long Beach, CA
2007 American Painters Galerie View, Salammbo, Tunisia
Everyday Encounters The Ranch, Escondido, CA
The Artist Space The Artist Space, Del Mar, CA
Facing Spring Sotherland studio, Escondido, CA
2006 Small Images The Lillian Berkley Collection, Escondido, CA
Heritage Revisited Shiva Artistic Collections, Escondido, CA
2003 Visions of Rome Outdoors in front of the Coliseum, Rome, Italy
Vessels for the Divine Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA
2002 Orvieto The Convent of San Lodovico, Orvieto, Italy
San Giovanale Quarter Chiesa di San Giovanale, Orvieto, Italy
