David Humphrey's exhibition "Anecdote" at Kate Werble Gallery transforms the space into a painted domestic interior, with a sofa, plant, and other furniture rendered directly on the walls. The show features works on paper that blend humor, absurdity, and a rejection of signature style, challenging postmodernist conventions through sly subversion rather than overt critique. Humphrey, a painter, sculptor, and critic active since the late 1970s, presents drawings that explore themes of consumerism, fluid identity, and dislocation, often using playful juxtapositions and self-deprecating wit.
This exhibition matters because it reframes Humphrey's career-long resistance to easy categorization within postmodernism. Critics have historically struggled to place his work, which avoids appropriation, parody, and irony—the usual postmodern tools. By creating an immersive environment that blurs art and life, Humphrey invites viewers to reconsider the boundaries of painting and drawing, and to question the value of stylistic consistency. His approach offers a refreshing alternative to the heroic or ironic modes that dominate contemporary art, emphasizing humor and subversion as enduring critical strategies.