Titled A Newer Perspective, the exclusive on-line exhibition at Tangent Contemporary Art furthers Patrick Hughes’ fascination with the paradox of optical perspective through a series of paintings and limited-edition multiples inspired by contemporary art, urban and historical architecture. In addition to familiar subjects such as ornate Venetian palazzos, museum halls and art collector’s homes, this collection presents street art as the newest element in Hughes’ pictorial repertoire showcasing recent works that pay homage to Keith Haring, the art world’s graffiti pioneer as well as Banksy, it’s newest enfant terrible.
Hughes’s instantly recognizable three-dimensional wall reliefs blur the line between sculpture and painting manipulating space itself with disorienting results. By reversing the apparent perspective in the subject matter, and uncovering multiple points of view simultaneously, the paintings and hand painted multiples acquire a sense of enigmatic motion. As the viewer walks back and forth in front of a Hughes, the work takes on a flat appearance that appears to move and shift, obscuring and revealing different aspects of the painted scene.
“I’ve never been interested in the personal, in expressing my inner feelings”. says Hughes in an on-line interview with The Telegraph. “My paintings are about the way we recognise space, and perceive the world, which we all do in more or less the same way. I’m interested in the things that make us similar rather than the things that make us different”. Hughes has been fascinated with puzzles, perspective and optical illusion all his life. He created his first three-dimensional paintings in 1964, and has spent the last several decades exploring and honing his signature style. Favorite subjects, appearing in different forms throughout his works, include artwork, architecture, books, landscape, and doors that open onto mysterious hallways or distant horizons.
As Barbara A. MacAdam wrote in an ARTnews, article about the artist: “Hughes’s work fits no category but partakes of many. Falling between Surrealism, Pop art, and Conceptualism, with nods at Cubism and even Minimalism, it is most distinguished and energized by homemade magic.”
Patrick Hughes was born in 1939 in Birmingham, UK, and is based in London. Internationally recognized as a major contemporary British artist, he is also a designer, teacher, and author. Besides San Francisco, Hughes’ works have been exhibited in major cities such as London, Paris, New York, Toronto, Seoul, Los Angeles and Chicago and are held in many public collections, including the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery in London; the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; the Deutsche Bibliothek, Frankfurt; and the Denver Art Museum.