Huck Snyder (1954-1993) was a pioneering painter, stage designer, and installation artist in the 1980s East Village NY art scene. Snyder crafted sets for prominent dancers and choreographers such as Bill T. Jones, Ishmael Houston-Jones, and Bart Cook. Snyder is best known, however, for his work with frequent collaborator and former partner, the performance artist John Kelly. 

Snyder was a bold painter, working fast and loose, with a manic yet lyrical intensity that is evidenced in his brushwork and draftsmanship. He also used unusual methods of framing, taping the edges of his “glass pieces”, and painting on these borders with patterns, words, and symbols. Themes varied significantly, from fairy tales, Tarot, and magic, to German expressionism. 

“As a visual artist and theatrical designer who embraced a flamboyant and subversive theatricality, there is also an underlying sense of anxiety imbued in the works and settings that Snyder crafted. The materials he used were, by their very nature, not meant to last. Cheap house paint and cardboard. Constructing installations in dilapidated industrial buildings on the brink of crumbling. He was aware of the ephemeral essence of his artwork, and consciously employed these materials to mirror the uneasy precariousness that underlined both his own and his contemporaries’ situation.” (courtesy of New York Artists Equity Association Inc.)

He showed frequently at the experimental project space of David Wojnarowicz and Mike Bidlo, Pier 34, and the seminal East Village gallery Civilian Warfare. Awards received include an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Scenic Design in 1988 and two New York Dance and Performance Awards—also known as a Bessie—in 1985 and 1991. He died of complications from AIDS in 1993.