HUÊ THI HOFFMASTER: YOUR PRESENCE/PRESENTS

December 9, 2023–February 18, 2024
Samek Art Museum, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA

In Your Presence/Presents, the Vietnamese-American artist Huê Thi Hoffmaster indulges in the timeless motif of the floral still life, imagining his bouquets as “the mark of the gift-giver.” These flowers take up space, both physical and mental, and weight their atmosphere with a lingering presence. Much like their giver, the flowers possess personalities and—if he listens closely enough—Hoffmaster can draw a story out of their silence.

Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Hoffmaster has spent his early career exploring the full spectrum of abstraction and representation; this suite of paintings reflects the formal breadth of his vision. Oscillating between improvisation and meticulous rendition, Hoffmaster arranges his bouquets with realistic blossoms alongside non-objective bursts of color. The arrangements alternatively materialize as portrait-like studies, as with Motions, and severely playful garden scenes like Before the Night is Over. Hoffmaster’s thickets of paint threaten to outgrow the boundaries of his canvas as he actively cultivates tension—between Eastern and Western aesthetic traditions, curiosity and cognizance, the seen and unseen.