Born in 1950, James Huber worked primarily in San Francisco, CA and created more than 900 paintings and sculptures before his death from AIDS in 1988. His work is representative of Bay Area Figurative Style and of the gay community in which he lived and worked.

Huber attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, transferring to the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his B.A. in Studio Art and History. He continued his studies with Joan Brown at the Academy of Art, San Francisco.

Huber’s prolific output can be broadly categorized in three themes: Landscape, Abstract, and Figurative. He also produced two important series exploring Rimbaud’s Illuminations and Baja California landscapes.

The 1970s and 80s saw a number of artists challenging the hegemony of the art market and the structure in which museums and galleries shape the valuation and reputation of artists. Huber

co-founded (with Phil Linhares and David McClay) Open Studios in San Francisco, still in operation today as the oldest and largest of a national movement of artist-driven presentation of their work. In the Artist Statement from his 1980 retrospective at the nonprofit South of Market Cultural Center, Huber states, “I have chosen through the past years not to participate in the traditional ‘art world’ although I realized that alternative viewing contexts were virtually non-existent. Because art is a process of evaluation and therefore education, I believe that it should be viewed in a context that is removed from the egoistic and self-conscious world of the marketplace. It is difficult to receive intelligent and instructive criticism when that appraisal is attached to a monetary evaluation.”

James Huber’s work is included in numerous private and corporate collections, both in the United States and internationally. His papers, correspondence, and personal photographs are included in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.