Juliana Huxtable
ARI 1
About the Artwork
“Agriculture,” notes Julian Huxtable, “has always been about the modification and the projection of ideal traits.” Such is the impetus for a body of work in which Huxtable at once criticises the cruelty of industrial farming, while also looking to internet culture as a model of trans-species empathy; many online users adopt avatars – virtual representations of themselves – in the forms of nonhuman animals or hybrids. ARI 1, which was featured in The Polygon’s avatar-inspired exhibition Ghosts of the Machine (2022), is a self-portrait in which Huxtable becomes one such hybrid. The work itself reflects this dazzling sense of hybridity; like its part-women, part-serpent, part-jaguar subject, Huxtable’s lustrous tableau vacillates between photograph and painting, spilling boundlessly beyond the image’s borders.
AR 1
2019
Inkjet print mounted on dibond
1 of 3 + 1 AP
30" x 45"
Estimate: $12,000
Courtesy the artist; Reena Spauling Fine Art, New York and Los Angeles; and Project Native Informant, London
About Juliana Huxtable
Juliana Huxtable (b. 1987, Bryan-College Station, USA) attended Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where she studied art, gender studies, and human rights. In her work, Huxtable explores the intersections of race, gender, queerness, and identity. She uses a diverse set of means to engage these issues, including self-portraiture, text-based prints, performance, nightlife, music, writing, and social media. Whether inserting her own image in landscapes inspired by the African American religious sect Nuwaubian Nation or including the iconic “Protest” section of the jazz album We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960) in a DJ set, Huxtable critiques existing social norms and categorical distinctions while indicating alternate, more hopeful possibilities. She is currently based in Berlin. Huxtable is represented by Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York & Los Angeles, and Project Native Informant, London.
