The 5 small artworks that make up this show have a presence and gravitas that holds the room. That’s no small feat, because in this day of spectacle over quality and loud over quiet, these artworks have a earthy simplicity that belie number and size.
The surface of these paintings – worked – possibly overworked with light pushing through the center reveal themselves as quiet objects that insist on your attention. They carry themselves with a quiet grace and at the same time require the viewer to spend real time – by this I mean more than a cursory glance at the object. They demand almost a short relationship to pull the most out of the experience.
There is a small bit of writing by Robert Storr that was attached to the invite of the show, he mentions the opaque and implacable quality of the works of HF. I agree. The works carry with them a naturalist palette of deep ochres and umbers that bury themselves in the natural world while at the same time reach and achieve something far different.