HAND-ME-DOWN: David Herbert

Runs / May 5 – June 18, 2023

Reception / First Friday, May 5, 6–10 PM
Gallery Hours / Sat-Sun from 2-6 PM

HAND-ME-DOWN, a solo exhibit by sculptor David Herbert, premieres at Grizzly Grizzly from May 5 to June 18. For his first show in Philadelphia, Herbert radically alters the gallery by building a false back wall that makes Grizzly’s intimate space even more so. Referencing the Western canon that dominates art history books, his new sculptures, purposely scaled for Grizzly’s space, include a bright yellow remake of Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, a Greek-inspired bust, and a plywood rendition of the Navarone WWII mountain playset. His site-specific installation not only shrinks our floorplan by one-third but also reconsiders the display of artworks by placing his remakes in wall cubbies and acrylic boxes like so many urns in a columbarium.

Herbert, known for building large-scale sculptures of familiar cultural iconography such as a room-size replica of Star Trek’s U.S.S. Enterprise, uses the gallery not just as a space for exhibition, but as sculpture, in and of itself. Herbert’s sculptures and drawings populating the reconfigured space are inspired by the well-documented relationship between Marcel Duchamp and Constantin Brancusi (whose work is also referenced in the exhibit) making an unexpected connection between Paris and Philadelphia, the cities in which the major collections of both artists reside and where Herbert was traveling while planning this show. 

Feeling the undeniable influence these artists have, but also expressing a sense of frustration with the hegemony of these artists, their artifacts, and the space they occupy in art history, Herbert describes HAND-ME-DOWN not as a show that was inspired by this Eurocentric history, but, rather, a personal reckoning with it. As the exhibit title suggests, HAND-ME-DOWN is an inspection of the things we inherit—objects, histories, and traits—that we commonly accept at face value. Herbert, through his playful use of materials and space, re-thinks the preciousness of these iconic artists from the past, reconsidering their place and usefulness in the present.

Artist Bio

David Herbert has an ongoing fascination with re-imagining cultural iconography from art and antiquity, architecture, mythology, film, and pop culture. His large-scale sculptures and installations have a prop-like quality that captures an uncanny sense of scale and accuracy of the real and imaginary things he portrays in his work. His materials and tools (cardboard, foil, wood, tape, etc) are basic and inexpensive, projecting an immediacy and vulnerability that establishes a tension with the iconic, larger-than-life subjects he represents.

David Herbert (b. 1977) is a sculptor based in upstate New York. Born and raised in Washington State, he received his BFA in Video Art and Sculpture from Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA. He earned his MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and has attended residencies at Skowhegan, Art Omi, and 911 Media Arts Center. Herbert has exhibited across the US and abroad including Postmasters and the Field Projects in NYC, The Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, Saatchi Gallery in London, and the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati. Herbert’s work is included in the Saatchi Collection in London and the 21c Museum Hotels, among others.