Huma Bhabha

Born 1962 in Karachi, Pakistan
Lives and Works in Poughkeepsie, New York

Assembled from mundane materials and scraps of detritus, Huma Bhabha’s My Skull Is Too Small resembles an array of masks or totems. Abstracted fragments of human features—eyes, ears, and legs—coalesce uneasily, as if they are still in the process of being formed or already in a state of decay. The sculpture’s stylized composition and areas of roughly worked clay evoke archaic monuments ravaged by time. Yet the tangled chicken wire and spraypainted Styrofoam blocks that protrude beneath the clay surfaces locate the piece in the present or even in some imaginary dystopian future. The pedestal of this work, with its graffiti marks and collage elements, suggests a shipping crate. Bhabha often describes her sculptures as “characters” that project psychological depth through traces of violent use and references to the history of figurative sculpture. Although the distressed materials in her work can allude to catastrophe, they also convey a paradoxical sense of renewal.

Read About the Artist 

"The Nifty 50: Huma Bhabha"
—T Magazine/The New York Times (February 2010)

"Huma Bhabha Receives Aldrich Museum's 2008 Emerging Artist Award"
—Artforum (August 2008)

"Huma Bhabha: Salon 94"
—Artforum (December 2007)

"Art In Review; Huma Bhabha"
—The New York Times (March 2006)

"Art in Review; Huma Bhabha"
—The New York Times (February 2004)