Studio Visit with Ben Huberman

Ben Huberman is one of my favorite painters, he is also a family friend, and I have had the privilege of living around his spectacular paintings for as long as I can remember. One painting in particular(pictured below) has been in my family's home since I was a young child. I was always fascinated by it. It was a portal of shape, dimension and space where light bounces forth from delineated planes. It's intense feeling of space is captivating and as a child it was if he was showing me that reality could be distilled and defined in a robust visual language and this painting still intrigues me at 28. My eyes still wonder to it during meals.

Huberman has been painting for almost for forty years and I recently visited him in his studio to talk with him about his paintings. Huberman started out as a sculptor but in his early 20's he wanted to try a new medium and enrolled at the Studio School in New York in the hopes of taking drawing classes. The drawing classes were filled but there was space in a painting class , taught by the admired painting teacher Leland Bell. Bell was a consummate teacher but a tough one and took an interest in Huberman's work and as Huberman puts it "he has been painting ever since." It is not surprising that Huberman started out as a sculptor because his paintings have such an appreciation of form, and rhythm.

Angel, gouache on paper, 2006

Presently, Huberman has been working with gouache and creating vivid paintings on paper of angels. They are meant to represent the angels in his life that have helped him in different ways. What is most interesting about the angels, is that they have such a robust physicality: they are strong but beautiful. .

Angel, gouache on paper, 2006

If you are interested in more information on Ben Huberman or would like to purchase on of his works please contact me at ullakj@gmail.com