Shawn Huckins: The Birds Will Sing
George Billis Gallery // April 10, 2021 - May 08, 2021
May 03, 2021 | in Painting
It has been close to two years since we last covered the work by Shawn Huckins and after years of talking about the erasure of history through figure-based works, he is currently presenting a body of work revolving around landscape tradition.
, borrows the title of an old Cajun folk song, and just the sweet-sounding title conceals a murder ballad, Denver-based artist is disturbing the breathtaking landscapes with dark statements about contemporary love.
Living in the age of captions, memes, and social network communication, Huckins creates a visual bridge between the classic American paintings by 19th-century masters and the way we share and/or absorb information in the present day. Sourced from public domain and museum collections, Bierstadt s or The Hudson River School s iconic works are here repurposed as mere backdrops for misspelled and abbreviated stateme
The pandemic hit Denver’s arts and culture scene hard, forcing many businesses, performance spaces, museums and galleries to close, at least temporarily, at the end of March. In the months since, artists and curators have rallied to keep culture alive, to comment on social injustice, and to inspire us all to appreciate essential workers and health-care providers.
Along the way, the scene has shown its grit and ability to stay relevant through the toughest of times, though some longstanding cultural institutions have been wrangling with their own inner demons.
Here are the ten biggest arts and culture stories in Denver in 2020: