“Hueman” Nature: Allison Torneros’ Abstract Expressions

When Allison Torneros begins a painting, she has no idea where it will take her. Creating art under the pseudonym Hueman—a nod to the self-actualization she’s found through art—she begins with the freestyle layering of colorful swirls of aerosol paint, soaking, splattering, and spraying the surface with waves of pastel and neon colors. These seemingly random acts create abstract fields that call to mind cosmic skyscapes or more corporeal forms. Once the ground is established, the artist goes back in with acrylic paint, layering crisp black-and-white lines, and seeking out human forms: eyes, noses, mouths. The resulting fractured faces of pouty-lipped beauties appear as though seen through prisms.

The California native found her signature style when she stepped outside the studio and onto the street, painting street art murals that attracted the attention of clients like Nike and Sean Combs’ television network, Revolt TV, as well as media like LA Weekly, which named her one of their “People” of 2014. Now, Hueman has returned to the studio with a new exhibition of works on canvas, “Between the Lines” at Los Angeles’ Project Gallery.

“When people look at art, sometimes they look for things that may or may not be there,” she has said about her latest body of work. “With ‘Between the Lines’ I want to talk about human behavior and the tendency to place meaning and significance in what we see.” For Hueman herself, the work functions as a type of Rorschach test as she seeks out forms in abstraction, each work eventually revealing a glimpse into her state of mind, filled with the possibility of hidden messages.