David Huffman

Part of Bay Area Walls

Opened October 12, 2024
Floor 5

David Huffman, Portals, 2024 (installation view, SFMOMA); courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, and Casey Kaplan, New York; photo: Don Ross

About

Basketball was central to David Huffman’s youth. Year-round, he would play from morning until night fell and the court went dark. For him, the basketball court was a sanctuary, an experience the artist describes as shared by many Black Americans. Portals does not represent Huffman’s childhood court literally. Instead, the enveloping background and three individual paintings (Andromeda, Moon, and Bridge) create a magical setting of wonder and peace. The backboards are portals leading to trees, green hills, and an unearthly light conveyed with saturated colors. The outdoor court becomes a gateway from urban space into the beauty of nature and beyond. Portals draws together imagination and reality, the city and the natural world to capture basketball as it embodies the spirit of a place.

Artist Interview

First Person: David Huffman on His Creative Process

“I do large abstract paintings, but not forty-two feet long! I had a few paintings with basketball courts that I had done in 2006, like the ones I later painted for this mural. On my computer, on a whim, I took part of an image from one painting and used it to fill the mock-up of the wall. I was just experimenting. It was so different from my other work, but it felt right.”

The Oakland-based artist talks about his artistic approach, filling a forty-two-foot-long wall, and basketball’s role in his Bay Area Walls commission Portals.

David Huffman, Portals, 2024 (detail); courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, and Casey Kaplan, New York; photo: Tenari Tuatagaloa

More Bay Area Walls Commissions

Learn about past and present commissions through interviews, behind-the-scenes stories, photographs, and more. See upcoming commissions and learn more about the series by visiting the Bay Area Walls exhibition page.

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The presenting sponsor for Bay Area Walls is Gap Inc.

Major support is provided by the Roberta and Steve Denning Commissioning Endowed Fund.

Generous support is provided by the Patricia W. Fitzpatrick Commissioning Endowed Fund, Diana Nelson and John Atwater Commissioning Fund, and the Denise Littlefield Sobel Commissioning Endowed Fund.