ART-PRESENTATION: Shara Hughes
Shara Hughes describes her lush, vibrantly chromatic images of hills, rivers, trees and shorelines, often framed by abstract patterning, as “invented landscapes”. Bold, clashing colours and shifting perspectives manifest into dream-like landscapes that push and pull the eye across the canvas, challenging conventions of space. Rather than depicting true to life landscapes, Hughes invites us into a fantastical world offered as a portal for psychological discovery and reflection.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Aspen Art Museum Archive
Shara Hughes was born in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and later attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Hughes is best known for her colorful, invented landscapes that reference multiple art movements, such as Symbolism, Fauvism, and Surrealism, and defy conventional depictions of light and space. “I work intuitively,” Hughes has said about her process. “I don’t mix up palettes or lay anything out, so when I’m painting, I’m reacting to what I’ve just done. Working this way makes it exciting for me to paint because I never know what’s going to happen. I think that’s why my work seems alive and playful.” In her solo exhibition Shara Hughes aims to subvert the traditional connotations associated with flowers. Neither delicate nor stereotypically beautiful, her flowers take on an aggressive, almost defiant inflection. These four larger-than-life size canvases cast a new lens on the expressive quality—and potential—of flowers. The artist sees her own personal qualities in these paintings, which she refers to as self-portraits. Her poppy, dandelion, and orchids embody humanistic qualities, be it stubborn, resilient, or expressive. Hughes’s paintings offer her viewers an ant-like perspective as they peer up at these towering, gigantic forms. Commanding in scale, Hughes likewise lends a seriousness to the realm of the still life. Mindful of ecology, the artist gives ample space to this environmentally timely subject matter often relegated to the background. In 2006, Hughes moved to the Roaring Fork Valley, spending time at Anderson Ranch and producing work for her first solo exhibition over the course of a year. The artist began painting landscapes when she moved to New York City in 2015 and started her flower series in 2019. She painted these canvases during the lockdown at the end of 2020. Flowers, in a sense, serve as a marker of time, both seasonally but also as a symbol of spring, youth, beauty, and ultimately of death and mortality. Here, Hughes renders flowers in their prime, powerful depictions of both her surroundings and her inner self.
Photo: Installation view: Shara Hughes, Aspen Art Museum-Aspen, 2021, Courtesy the artist and Aspen Art Museum
Info: Curators: Nicola Lees, Assistant Curator: Simone Krug, Aspen Art Museum, 637 East Hyman Avenue, Aspen, CO, USA, Duration: 27/7-12/9/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, https://www.aspenartmuseum.org
