On Thursday, September 12th, the gallery opens Immediate Release: Pain Portraits, Christopher Huff’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. 

According to the artist: “I’ve created this series of works in an attempt to excavate and process the repressed moments of pain and trauma I've felt during my childhood, focusing primarily on the time I’ve had to spend within the healthcare system. Recently I’ve asked myself if I ever truly processed these events from my childhood correctly. I've found through introspection that the lack of autonomy one deals with creates strong emotions that can’t be verbalized. Through this body of work, I attempt to depict the personal events that I’ve experienced in cartoonism, a visual format that depicts a style of imagery that accompanied me during those times. 

This new body of work which I call “Pain Portraits” features bold line work that travels throughout the layers of the painting. To me, these works are drawings that contain color, not paintings. Drawing has always been the most accessible medium for a child. It allows us to be direct with what we’re feeling at the present moment. My Pain Portraits each focus on a specific feeling or event from my past or current situation. I create the majority of my sketches on my iPad during times of hospitalization. I do this in an attempt to survey my emotional and mental state while either in moments of pain and or moments of being under the influence of heavy opioid medication, so that when these moments are no longer present I will have somehow gotten a bit closer to understanding myself and my illness.”