99% NO.50 Tywone 2013

Curator: Huckaby's "99% NO.50 Tywone" presents a starkly rendered portrait. The artist's focus on conveying a specific reality of labor and class is palpable. Editor: Yes, there's a sense of immediacy in the rough textures, and the restricted palette certainly evokes a kind of gravitas. How does the socio-political climate influence pieces like this? Curator: The work engages with the representation of Black men in art and society, questioning traditional power dynamics within art institutions. Its display here invites a dialogue. Editor: So, the artist is asking us to confront assumptions about who is seen, and how they're seen? The making of it, the rough marks, they are all part of that message. Curator: Precisely. Huckaby is both honoring and challenging conventional portraiture, and the very means by which we assign value. Editor: Seeing it in that light, the work seems even more insistent now, a visual act of resistance.