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P ainter Sedrick Huckaby flies under the radar. He's a modest, earnest man with a direct gaze, unmis- takable intelligence, and the convictions of a pragmatic idealist. His understated nature stands in contrast to his art-world creden- tials: This year alone has seen his series "The 99%" paired with Glenn Ligon's work in a special exhibi- tion mounted by the Amon Carter Museum of Ameri- can Art in Fort Worth, as well as inclusion and com- mendation in the presti- gious Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. (a museum under the auspices of the Smithsonian; the exhibit tours nationally). In an era of painters and the embrace of the fig- ure, Huckaby could have punched a big ticket to any- where in the art world. But after earning his MFA from Yale, he returned home to Fort Worth, where he has exhibited since 2005 at Valley House Gallery, and reared a family with wife and artist Letitia Huckaby, who also has a respected trajectory. His purpose for being in Texas came into focus after his mater- nal grandmother, Hallie Beatrice Carpenter, passed away in 2008, and he in- herited her historic house in the Poly neighborhood of Fort Worth. Its interiors, as well as Carpenter her- self, are the subject of his most memorable canvases. Huckaby contemplated the next step for the homestead, a circa-1901 domicile on two acres of land in a deeply rooted African-American neighborhood, at the mo- ment little gentrified. Within Big Momma's House, you can see an en- vironment best understood when viewed in the grand sequence of art history. Its sense of place, time, eternity, and community is every bit the equal of Rick Lowe's Project Row Houses in Houston, and James Magee's The Hill in West Texas. All of these artistic par- allels the artist mentions in our discussion about his 81 In a chapel-like space within the house, Huckaby's portraits of his aunts. From left, Jeanette, Net, Nanna; and Alice, Prophetess Jones, both painted 2013. Artist Sedrick Huckaby