Adrian Huth in his garage studio (Courtesy photo)
North Park, South Park, art
‘Breaking Through With Adrian Huth’
‘The Painter Describes His First Crucial Steps Into the Local Art Scene’
By Frank Sabatini Jr.
There are millions of exceptionally talented artists in the world who have never exhibited or sold a single piece of their work. Despite having produced more than 250 stunning abstract-expressionist paintings from his garage since the pandemic started, Adrian Huth fell into that category, until recently. The humble artist resides on the border of South Park and North Park, and serves as vice president for a local tech marketing company. He emerged quietly last month in a juried multi-artist show (“Beneath the Surface”) with one of his large oil paintings. It hangs on a wall until Feb. 4 at Ashton Gallery, which resides within Art on 30th in North Park’s growing arts and culture district.
Huth will soon enjoy additional waves of exposure, one of them in a group exhibit at the Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery in Escondido that runs from Feb. 5 to March 18. That show is named “Your True Colors” and will feature two of his pieces that were juried by international career artist Nicholas Wilton.
Through a combination of talent and perseverance, Huth is a guiding example of an artist taking small but important steps into the market. He serves as an inspiration for others hoping to gain exposure through their own creative talents.
Downtown Condo Guys: Is painting something you recently took up?
Huth: No. I was very involved in art classes in high school, where I won a Gold Key Award for a self portrait. I grew up in Wisconsin—and in college I was a philosophy major. But when I moved to San Diego, a friend nudged me into painting so I started doing that for a couple of years around 1999. But then I pivoted into music, then culinary arts for a while.
Downtown Condo Guys: What prompted you to pull out the paint brushes again?
Huth: My wife, Margaret, who is a multi-media interdisciplinary artist, basically set me up with a piece of paper and gloss paints as I was kind of going out of my mind when the pandemic started. She knew I had done some paintings in the past, like 18 years ago, and so I decided to put my energy back into it because I had nothing else to do. My culinary [hobby] had been shut down because I wasn’t going into grocery stores or finding ingredients I needed online.
Downtown Condo Guys: How would you describe your style of painting?
Huth: I consider myself a colorist who has evolved into an abstract impressionist. I’m prone to using bright, bold colors. I usually go through a few days of selecting source material and ironing out the concepts before I even get to the actual paper or canvas. On a 1-to-10 scale, I’m in the 5-to-10 range of being more on the abstract side than the realism side.
Downtown Condo Guys: How did your pieces gain entry into the North Park and Escondido art shows?
Huth: I started looking at leads and applying to juried shows. I didn’t have a resume or any expectations, and I was turned down for some of them. It’s a very competitive market. Then, within the same week, I was accepted for both shows. Also, three months prior to those shows, I was accepted into an online exhibit called Vices for Arc Gallery in San Francisco. They accepted one of my pieces titled The Russian Actors, which will also be published in a book about the show.
And just recently, 10 of my works were accepted by F3LL Magazine for their winter issue. They had put out a national call for art, for which I applied for back in November.
Downtown Condo Guys: How many of your pieces have you sold, if any?
Huth: Zero. They are not for sale right now. When you’re an emerging artist, your work needs to be priced very low because you have no reputation or brand name. You have to build that over time until reaching a mid-career level. My main priority now is to show work and meet other artists here in San Diego—and build enough group-show activity before getting some solo shows.
Downtown Condo Guys: Any favorite San Diego galleries?
Huth: Bread and Salt in Barrio Logan is a very unique space. It’s an old bread factory and has a nice vibe and all these weird rooms. There’s even some old bread-making equipment inside.
I also like Space for Art in the East Village because their business model provides a live-work situation for artists.
And the Athenaeum in La Jolla is also unique because it has a library of art books and sound recordings.
Downtown Condo Guys: What advice would you give fellow, aspiring artists who haven’t been accepted into a show yet?
Huth: I would say don’t give up. And learn from your work. I’ve probably failed more than I’ve succeeded after applying to shows when I probably wasn’t ready to. Those rejections just made me say to myself, ‘I need to become a better painter.’ And that’s what I’ve tried to do.
