Sedrick Huckaby, The Welcome Space, 2019. Image courtesy of Fort Worth Public Art Commission
The Welcome Space, a commissioned public artwork by artist Sedrick Huckaby, was dedicated on Tuesday at the Highland Hills Community Center in Fort Worth. The Welcome Space has been added to the City of Fort Worth’s Public Art Collection and is located under two shaded trees on the south side of the community center.
The work takes the form of two benches that are covered in concrete and tiles that create the effect that quilts have been draped over the benches. The concrete undulates with folds, and the “quilts” are a patchwork of portraits and landmarks that would be familiar to anyone who has seen the artist’s paintings. Huckaby’s subjects for The Welcome Space are some of the same subjects he has explored for his painted portraits, including his family and neighbors.
In its press release the Fort Worth Public Art Commission states: “The sitting area is one that recalls the African American artistic legacy of quilting and hand-made craft. Its jubilant color reflects the celebratory palette in many traditional African cultures. The cultural quilts acknowledge the quilted past of the community, with some patches featuring portraits as a way of illustrating the variety of people who have made up this close-knit community.”
Huckaby
Sedrick Huckaby was born in 1975 in Fort Worth, Texas. He has a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from Yale.
Huckaby has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including a Guggenheim award, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, and a Lewis Comfort Tiffany Award. Most recently, he was named the Texas State Artist for 2018. His works are in many collections, including the American Embassy in Namibia; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Amon Carter Museum of American Art; African American Museum, Dallas, Texas; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
For more on Huckaby’s new public artwork, please go here.
2 comments
Christopher, thank you for writing about art in Texas. I appreciate your perspective and thoughts. Sedrick is a wonderful person, an engaging artist, and a gift to the area. Sedrick, thank you for making this work and taking the time to add so much to the cultural landscape of our area.
I was thrilled to learn of your new position with Glasstire!