Pandemic Prevents Opening Reception, But Gallery Is Open Daily to the Public
Mikee Huber is known as an intuitive abstract painter whose work is informed by built environments, the natural world and design. Wilmington College is presenting an exhibit of her paintings Jan. 19 through March 4 in Harcum Art Gallery, located in Boyd Cultural Arts Center.
PICTURED: Mikee Huber’s “Treasure, That Is What You Are.”
The pandemic is preventing the usual opening night reception honoring the artists, but the exhibit is open to the public weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by special appointment coordinated by gallery curator Hal Shunk, professor of art.
With a background in graphic design, Huber is inspired by abstract views of visual information embedded in such formats as scientific images, circuit boards and topographic views of city streets and waterways. She employs variations in color, scale and contrast to create visual balance in her paintings and reimagine realms of possibility.
Huber often works in series as a means of organizing her thoughts and ideas.
Her Connections series represents how the importance of community and individuals are woven together. This is even more so as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused many persons to be isolated and alone, missing family and friends and having their lives upended. Huber's acrylic paintings allude to the light at the end of a long tunnel, a place and time that we will be able to safely connect in-person again.
Viewers can follow the twists and turns connecting the color fields and grids, leading them along a new journey. Her Catalyst series is a result of the hope she felt after learning that the COVID-19 vaccine was available. In these paintings, she attempts to capture the movement, change, consciousness and imagination generated by catalysts through scraping, adding and subtracting layers of glitter, inks and paints, including interference paint that shifts color when viewed at different angles.
And in her series, Controlled Chaos, Huber uses unconventional tools and materials. Tongue depressors, toothpicks, eye droppers, tweezers and her fingers take the place of the traditional paintbrush to combine layers of paint, glitter, glue and foil leaf. Fluid movements throughout the compositions beg viewers to see their own stories.
