Gerald Peters Contemporary, Santa Fe is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Patrick Dean Hubbell. On view August 13 – September 25, Patrick Dean Hubbell: A New Day brings together a selection of the artist’s most recent works.

Hubbell’s early approach to painting built upon gestural abstraction. Incorporating Diné philosophy and contemporary western aesthetics and ideologies, his large scale canvases were characterized by expressive brushwork and the inclusion of Navajo geometric designs.

Continuing his exploration of abstraction through the lenses of both modern and Indigenous art, Hubbell began reconstructing the canvas in reference to textile, shawl, blanket and medicine bags. Unencumbered by stretcher bars, Hubbell would cut, fold and collage loose canvases. The resulting works transformed his medium and the context in which it is viewed.

The new paintings included in this exhibition extend Hubbell’s experimentation with suspended canvases.  Using acrylic, charcoal, and natural earth pigments collected from the Diné nation, Hubbell summons webs of colors interrupted by stylized geometric patterns more commonly found on Navajo textiles.

For Hubbell, an Indigenous artist, living and working between Chicago and the Navajo Nation, these experimentations with methods of painting and display move beyond the question of aesthetics, reflecting ideas of identity and categorization.  To this end, the artist will also present a selection of paintings on mass manufactured textiles.  Reflecting on the commercial exploitation of Native culture, Hubbell seeks to “redefine the visibility of the Indigenous experience.”