Discovering the New Landscape: A Vision by Shara Hughes
Written by Nínive Vargas de la Peña for Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated. March 2022,
In landscapes governed by a profoundly personal aesthetic, Shara Hughes creates scenes of surrealistic delight. Possessing an almost alien-like nature, her unrestrained use of vibrant colors composes scenes that submerge us in the experience of polychromatic savagery. Inspired in the emotional experiences of her life, this contemporary fauvist tries to recreate the ‘figurative’ form to her psychological experiences. The result is an outlandish panorama that captures viewers through the experience of the unknown presented through a spectacle of color. An overpoweringly successful upcoming artist, her work has been included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Georgia, the Denver Art Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Furthermore, Hughes’s artwork was prominently displayed in the Whitney Biennial of 2017, which featured a complete room for the single display of her oeuvre.
“I want them to feel inspired.”
SHARA HUGHES
In this recent work from 2018, Hughes submerges us in a forest of ferocious wonder. Positioning the viewer on the first plane, the view is framed by two slender trees whose leaves—both bloom and bursting bubble—appear to fill the canvas and obtrude the view into the mystical prairie. Inundated by the warm light of a sun setting behind a vibrating blue body of water, two hills have been submerged in a countless number of red, orange and yellow flowers. Meanwhile, a pink firmament with mellow purple clouds crowns this dreamlike scenario. Reminiscent of Cezanne, Hughes positions the viewer as an immediate onlooker by providing them with a clear entry point into the scene—in this case, the trees with a path—provoking an instantaneous submersion into her psychological universes. The immediate impression plays with the attention of the viewer, pushing and pulling it away through the planes of the canvas.
CEZANNE, THE AQUEDUCT , 1897-1900
PUSHKIN MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, MOSCOWAn artist whose artwork is a “heartfelt citation into art history”, Shara Hughes has successfully combined her wide-ranging inspirations into a proposal that speaks to the existent imaginary boundaries between the painting genres. With scenes stepping away from her former symbolist compositions and into figurative landscapes configured through a plethora of techniques, this versatile painter stands in the forefront of creatives. Careful observation into her artwork will constantly uncover new historical relationships, making her canvases an unending experience of delectable aesthetic enjoyment.