Gerald Peters Contemporary | August 13-September 25, 2021 | Santa Fe, NM

Abstracted Fields

Patrick Dean Hubbell (Diné)

Patrick Dean Hubbell (Diné) lives a balance between his Navajo heritage and the contemporary art world. He follows the Diné philosophy of Sa’ah Naaghai Bik’eh Hozhoo that guides life in harmony with the natural world and the universe. He gathers minerals from around the Navajo Reservation to make pigments which he mixes with man-made oil and acrylic paints to create his large-scale canvases.

Often, his geometric abstract canvases incorporate symbols common among the Diné. The Spider Woman Cross which represents balance and the reverence for the four directions, the nation’s four sacred mountains and its four sacred stones. Spider Woman had brought the skill of weaving on a loom to the Diné and resides atop Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly. Hubbell also incorporates zig zag patterns representing the flowing energy of water, wind and lightning.

You Balance the Angst, acrylic, charcoal, enamel, synthetic polymer and natural earth pigment on unstretched canvas, 84 x 72"

In paintings such as You Balance the Angst, the crosses are on a field of gestural, non-representational brushstrokes reminiscent of the mid-century abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. Hubbell notes that Pollack had found his way to the Navajo Nation several times and was inspired by the physical process of Navajo sand painting. He found a kindred spirit in Pollock and his technique, even laying the canvas on the floor to create his gestural work, as Pollock did and sand painters did before him.

Hubbell was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 2017.

“My work is an investigation of identity,” he says.
“I am drawn to the subtle questioning of this examination. I find inspiration in everything, and I use various themes rooted in the correlation and the conflict of both my Native American and contemporary mindset.

Ni’saahaak’ees: You Embrace Me and Balance My Mind, acrylic, charcoal, natural earth pigment, synthetic polymer on canvas, 72 x 130"

I am equally interested in the abstract qualities of expression as well as representational imagery. Using nature, stories, philosophies and abstract representations, I am able to depict this existence of identity.”

He incorporates various elements of design with bold colors as well as “expressive mark making that often mimics what nature provides. These elements allow me to create my own aesthetic value in which reflect a personal experience of memory, physical, mental and spiritual instances from life. The expressive personality of my work allows the viewer a momentary visual experience.”

A New Horizon Awaits, oil, acrylic, enamel, charcoal, natural earth pigment, synthetic polymer on canvas and wood, 96 x 36"