NYAB Event - Jeff Huntington "Plaques & Tangles: New Paintings"

Jeff Huntington "Plaques & Tangles: New Paintings"

Porter Contemporary

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Porter Contemporary presents Plaques & Tangles: New Paintings by Jeff Huntington. In this, his most recent body of work, portrait artist Jeff Huntington explores the mysteries of perception and memory as well as the flexibility -- and fragility -- of the human mind.

The title of the exhibition refers to the amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that are believed to contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease, a disease with which Huntington is quite familiar. While watching his father struggle with Alzheimer’s, the artist began to experiment with perspective. Using his father, nieces and nephews as subjects, Huntington developed a new portrait style that illustrates not only fragmented and confused thinking processes, but also his own shifting -- and often challenging -- feelings about his father’s illness.

“What is fascinating about Jeff’s new portraits is how he is visually processing his own knowledge and fear along with the unpredictability of the disease,” says Jessica L. Porter, Owner of Porter Contemporary. “Jeff is taking his perceptions of what might be happening in the mind of a loved one and projecting it onto a canvas: a healing process many of us wish we had the ability to do.”

Huntington has also found ways to add humor when dealing with the disease. In one painting, “Agent Orange,” Huntington’s father -- who receives “agent orange benefits” -- is wearing an Orange Crush t-shirt that he acquired from another patient. “I couldn’t resist the irony,” says Huntington.