Exhibitions
HUGER FOOTE: THE SUN INSIDE THE EVENING
David Lusk Gallery Nashville / 516 Hagan St. November 14, 2023 - December 23, 2023
Huger Foote
David Lusk Gallery is pleased to present THE SUN INSIDE THE EVENING by Huger Foote. This exhibition features 16 new photographs by the artist captured on travels between his residences in Memphis and Upstate New York.
A born-and-raised Memphian and internationally recognized photographer, Foote is known for understated, saturated images of everyday occurrences: a dining room chandelier, a tired grave, and a fog-obscured spotlight. From his early work with distorted color and perspective to current images with crisp lines, saturated color, and surprising texture, Foote has consistently evolved his photography practice. New photographs give a non-narrative glimpse into Foote’s reactions to place, time, literature, and memory. During his sojourns to his hometown from Upstate New York, he experiences a variety of transitions, from pleasant jolts to subtle familiarizations that let him know he’s returning home.
Of this body of work Foote says, “These images explore the liminal space between night and midday, crepuscule and dawn, from noonday sun to midnight and all that lies between: dawn, twilight, night and darkness... and the persistence and presence of light, even in shadowy places. These 16 images were created specifically for this exhibition, and represent a new direction for my work, a look at a wide spectrum of life -- pastoral and urban, morning, noon, and night. There is even a "moonbow" included, a prism of light in the midnight sky.”
Foote has always been interested in preserving cultural memory through photography, seeing colors juxtaposed perfectly on the sidewalk in front of him or textures melding together out of the corner of his eye. In Foote’s photographs, moments that fade and light that changes remain intact. He has the unique ability to capture everyday spaces while exalting a reverence for human presence and collective memory. In many ways, Foote’s works are a homecoming. Each image safeguards moments: the first inhale of fresh air on a morning hike, the feeling of devastation after a house fire, the salty grit on stairs at a beach house, the scent of soil and flowers in a lush garden following a heavy storm. As much as they are our memories, they are Foote’s as well. THE SUN INSIDE THE EVENING is a portrait of the mind of the artist, a start to knowing that what he is preserving is deeply personal as well as outside of him.
Huger Foote was born in Memphis and received his BFA from Sarah Lawrence College. After traveling extensively and living abroad for several years, he now resides in Memphis and Upstate New York. His work has been shown internationally in exhibitions from Memphis to London, New York to Brussels and beyond, and is featured in many public and private collections around the globe. Foote’s essay Homeward and photographs were published in the Summer 2023 Issue of The Sewanee Review. Together, they are a tender, thoughtful tribute to Memphis. His fashion photography and editorial work has been published in The New York Times, Interview, Details, i-D, American Vogue, British Vogue, French Vogue, American Elle, The Observer, Vanity Fair, Spin, Contents, and The Washington Post Magazine. Monographs of his work were published in 2000 and 2015. He lives in Memphis and Upstate New York.
David Lusk Gallery is located at 516 Hagan Street in Nashville. Gallery hours are Tu-Sa, 10-5. For more information or visuals please contact Judith Jessup at 615-780-9990 or judith@davidluskgallery.com.
