Tom Huck
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Influenced by sources as diverse as the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, the dark humor of Robert Crumb, and Frank Zappa, the artist Tom Huck creates what he terms "rural satire" in the form of sinister prints. "I want you to be horrified and shocked, but drawn back in because of the beauty," he says of his work.
In his 1998 series 2 Weeks in August: 14 Rural Absurdities, personal stories from the artist's hometown of Potosi, Missouri, are depicted to address issues of racism, violence, and abuse of authority. With titles like Bed of Bones or Martha and the Greased Pig, these narrative scenes feature such small-town scenarios as a scantily clad, pipe-smoking woman running off with a slippery swine while men with suits and cigars look on. Based on fact, these prints are rendered as a nightmarish combination of dark hatching and grotesque detail. In another series of 14, The Hillbilly Kama Sutra, the jarring intermix of the everyday and lurid continues with surreal, sexual narratives that take place in graveyards and on Ferris wheels, with such titles as Bone Rubbin' or Mile High Hand-Job. For this series, Huck took inspiration from Hans Holbein's 1537 …
In his 1998 series 2 Weeks in August: 14 Rural Absurdities, personal stories from the artist's hometown of Potosi, Missouri, are depicted to address issues of racism, violence, and abuse of authority. With titles like Bed of Bones or Martha and the Greased Pig, these narrative scenes feature such small-town scenarios as a scantily clad, pipe-smoking woman running off with a slippery swine while men with suits and cigars look on. Based on fact, these prints are rendered as a nightmarish combination of dark hatching and grotesque detail. In another series of 14, The Hillbilly Kama Sutra, the jarring intermix of the everyday and lurid continues with surreal, sexual narratives that take place in graveyards and on Ferris wheels, with such titles as Bone Rubbin' or Mile High Hand-Job. For this series, Huck took inspiration from Hans Holbein's 1537 …
Influenced by sources as diverse as the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, the dark humor of Robert Crumb, and Frank Zappa, the artist Tom Huck creates what he terms "rural satire" in the form of sinister prints. "I want you to be horrified and shocked, but drawn back in because of the beauty," he says of his work.
In his 1998 series 2 Weeks in August: 14 Rural Absurdities, personal stories from the artist's hometown of Potosi, Missouri, are depicted to address issues of racism, violence, and abuse of authority. With titles like Bed of Bones or Martha and the Greased Pig, these narrative scenes feature such small-town scenarios as a scantily clad, pipe-smoking woman running off with a slippery swine while men with suits and cigars look on. Based on fact, these prints are rendered as a nightmarish combination of dark hatching and grotesque detail. In another series of 14, The Hillbilly Kama Sutra, the jarring intermix of the everyday and lurid continues with surreal, sexual narratives that take place in graveyards and on Ferris wheels, with such titles as Bone Rubbin' or Mile High Hand-Job. For this series, Huck took inspiration from Hans Holbein's 1537 Dance of Death.
Huck has had solo exhibitions at the St. Louis Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Stephens Museum, among other venues. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at such institutions as the Cobra Museum of Modern Art, the Spencer Museum of Art, and the Museum of Art and Archeology. He runs his own press, Evil Prints, in St. Louis, Missouri.
show more descriptionshow less descriptionIn his 1998 series 2 Weeks in August: 14 Rural Absurdities, personal stories from the artist's hometown of Potosi, Missouri, are depicted to address issues of racism, violence, and abuse of authority. With titles like Bed of Bones or Martha and the Greased Pig, these narrative scenes feature such small-town scenarios as a scantily clad, pipe-smoking woman running off with a slippery swine while men with suits and cigars look on. Based on fact, these prints are rendered as a nightmarish combination of dark hatching and grotesque detail. In another series of 14, The Hillbilly Kama Sutra, the jarring intermix of the everyday and lurid continues with surreal, sexual narratives that take place in graveyards and on Ferris wheels, with such titles as Bone Rubbin' or Mile High Hand-Job. For this series, Huck took inspiration from Hans Holbein's 1537 Dance of Death.
Huck has had solo exhibitions at the St. Louis Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Stephens Museum, among other venues. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at such institutions as the Cobra Museum of Modern Art, the Spencer Museum of Art, and the Museum of Art and Archeology. He runs his own press, Evil Prints, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Born 1971
Hometown Potosi, MO
Lives and Works St. Louis, MO
Education
MFA Print Making, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
BFA Drawing, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale IL
BFA Drawing, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale IL
Permanent Collection
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Representing Galleries
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA
Works Available for Purchase
No works
