The Gallery at UTA features work from longtime curator
The Gallery at UTA is saying farewell to Benito Huerta, professor of art and art history, with two concurrent exhibitions featuring work by Huerta and Janet Chaffee, his wife and longtime collaborator.
The exhibitions, Profane Truths and Sacred Lies and Post Modern Fulcrum, are representative of who Huerta is as well as his growth as an artist since joining UTA. When curating the exhibition, Huerta said he set parameters to show only pieces produced since he came to UTA in 1997. Huerta, who is retiring from UTA, is also a former director and curator of the gallery.
Profane Truths and Sacred Lies is a confrontational exhibition. It’s a sampling of sculpture, drawing, painting and print work that confronts the audience and prevents them from backing away from the message. The various pieces address a combination of Huerta’s identity and topical societal issues.
Huerta said he feels compelled to produce art that deals with identity even when it makes him “angry that I have to do that type of art and that something needs to be said.”
“In a perfect world, I could do whatever I wanted, and my art wouldn’t deal with race,” he said. “It’d probably still be socially and politically conscious, but more subversive.”
The Chaffee and Huerta collaboration, Post Modern Fulcrum, deals more with aesthetics and architecture, exploring the physical and psychological boundaries of their individual and shared living and workspaces. The work invites the audience to see who they are together and as individuals and artists.
“The pieces that are in the collaborative work are part of my makeup, because it’s work with my wife,” he said. “There’s this affinity between us, the house and the architecture. I think about how the space works as a home and as a result is passes into my work.”
One of the things Huerta likes about the show is the opportunity for others to get a better understanding of who he is. Bringing together his individual work and the collaborative work with Chaffee adds definition to Huerta is as an artist.
“I’m happy with the way everything turned out in the exhibition, but I’m still thinking about the last painting because it’s what I am. It’s what I do,” Huerta said.
The exhibitions are on display until March 30 and are free and open to the public.