Dave Wofford

Illustration by Phil Blank

If you haven’t visited Horse & Buggy Press and Friends and PS 118 galleries in Durham, what are you waiting for? We got a chance to speak with the curator, Dave Wofford, who is celebrating the 25th anniversary of running H&B:

What's your fuel?

A slow breakfast with coffee and the newspaper (print edition of course, N&O most days; NY Times on Fri & Sun) and I’m out the door (anywhere between 5 and 8, I’m no longer a night person, far more productive and sharper in the morning hours). Time in the gardens to get right with the world. Field trips with my son Miles who is ten.

When it comes to photography, color or black and white?

Well I don’t make photographs like I did in my twenties, but I love both generally, and specifically relish opportunities to design books that include both. (Goat Light is my favorite book I’ve designed that has a healthy amount of both. It was a challenging treat to weave together everyday cell phone color snapshots with large format black and white photographs and short essays by Tom Rankin and Jill McCorkle).

If I could only look at one type of photography moving forward it would be b&w, printed in a darkroom by someone who knows what they are doing (like Holden Richards from Hillsborough, one of a few photographers in my galleries who still shoot film and is a true craftsperson in the darkroom showing the magic of silver gelatin printing that still can’t be replicated with pixels). More and more I enjoy the work of artists who utilize photography in assemblage work or installation manners, and having a larger second gallery I’ll be sharing more of this type of work (come around now to see small assemblage work by Heidi Kirkpatrick, who is the only artist on our roster not from the Southeast).

PS 118 Gallery, 118 W Parrish St., Durham, NC 27701 Friday and Saturday 12-8pm

Photo by Ricky Garni

Why should we buy local art?

You mean you aren’t buying local art already?!? :-)

It’s a rather big club. Don’t be ashamed.
Well there’s the value of local economies and keeping money in circulation locally, but I hope more folks see the IMMENSE FUN in interacting with and buying local art, going out and about on the regular to physical spaces of all types and stripes (galleries and artist work spaces especially), forming relationships with curators, staffers, artists and craftspeople along the way, and discovering what moves them, and seeing their tastes evolve and grow in different ways over the years.

To live with a painting that speaks to your soul on a daily basis, or to use a special handmade ceramic bowl for salad or pasta night, or put just the right photograph in that spot where you see it every day, those things really make a home feel special and come alive. I think everyone should be able to look around their home and know exactly where at least 20 pieces of art or craft objects came from, and remember the interactions with people around the objects. Owning and using works of art and craft adds meaning to lives and creates a more intimate home, and man that is a fun ever-evolving process! It helps us slow down from an increasingly fast paced world and consider the weight of things, to feel the moments in our lives and become in tune to our present, while accessing feelings from past experiences and memories. And unlike tech gizmos and fancy meals, these things last for generations without much maintenance needed and you can trade them in, gift them down the road when someone appreciates them more than you, or pass the special ones on to dear ones when you depart this Earth.

I never planned on being a gallery curator but I’m 50 now and thoroughly enjoy the many aspects of this work, and am expecting to do it for at least another 10 or 15 years. The mantra is to spark joy and conversation in different directions. I’m stoked that I get to do this through my work as a gallery curator (and book publisher) and introduce visitors to the MANY fabulously talented and earnest folks in the Southeast, and especially North Carolina, creating all kinds of inspired work.


Book that changed your life?

Also, that Ben Shahn Meredith College Library book I found in my first Raleigh apartment.

That’s four off the top of my head . . . and I notice all books I read before I turned 30.

I hope I read a book this decade that changes my life somehow.

What’s your pet peeve?

Restaurants that expect you to order with your cell phone. Even when you are dining in!

C’mon man. I don’t wanna look at your website on a two inch wide phone screen — so how about getting me a proper menu and sending over a server that can talk intelligently about what is on the menu (and have some personality along the way)? Most of us spend WAAAAY too much time in front of computer and phone screens, restaurants should not be furthering this even more (and how about selling those teevees up on the wall that nobody wants around, and invest in some art, a scratch plaster treatment with an engaging color palate, or something that makes for nice visual ambiance in the space?).

Also jet pack leaf blowers… They come around twice a week across the street for two hours at a popup (whether or not there’s anything other than dust in the parking lot).

When I’m Mayor there will be an immediate ban on jet pack leaf blowers.

Horse & Buggy Press and Friends Gallery, 1116 Broad St., Durham, NC 27705 Monday-Friday 8:30am-5pm

Learn about upcoming events here: https://www.horseandbuggypress.com/-future-exhibits-events-ps118

Special Thanks to Tammi Brooks of Inhabit Real Estate for sponsoring this post.