Shara Hughes

Born in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia, contemporary artist Shara Hughes now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is primarily known for her bright landscapes and intricate interiors, rendered through a wide range of painterly mediums. Hughes is expert in her ability to meld different references from art history, informing each of her hypnotic, otherworldly landscapes. While her outlandish palette is reminiscent of the highly saturated colors of the Fauves such as Henri Matisse, and the vibrant works of David Hockney, her biomorphic forms recall the works of the Surrealists, and her decorative framing devices reveal an indebtedness to the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. Shara Hughes’ landscape and flower series have enchanted international audiences with their brilliant color palettes and whimsical, sometimes menacing subject-matter.

Hughes attained her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design before going on to study at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Madison, Maine in 2011. Since then, Hughes has attracted the attention of the international art world, and has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions. In 2017, the artist was honored with a dedicated room for her kaleidoscopic landscapes at the Whitney Biennial, which was met with rave reviews. This year, Shara Hughes: The Bridge at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai marked the first solo exhibition for the artist in Mainland China, and a body of Hughes’ works are scheduled to be exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Luzern in Lucerne Switzerland (17 September to 20 November 2022), an exciting tribute to the artist. Today, her works can be found in a multitude of important cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Rachofsky Collection, Dallas; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington; and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York.