Ian Hughes
Ian Hughes’ paintings exploit the anatomical link between the brain and the viscera. Fluid, intertwining, and semi-transparent forms exude a bodily presence while suggesting a tangle of shifting associations. Hughes seduces the viewer with sensuous textures and a luscious palette of chromatic pinks, yellows and turquoise blues modulated by pearl whites and carbon blacks. For Hughes, the color field is a stage on which to choreograph a visual and psychological drama. In Hughes’ paintings, we could be frolicking in a garden of earthly delights or wallowing in the heat of the netherworld.
Education
1986 M.F.A., Columbia University School of the Arts,
Division of Painting and Sculpture, New York, NY
1981 B.A., Yale University, New Haven, CT
1980 Yale Summer School of Art at Norfolk, Norfolk, CT
Ellen Stoeckel Battel Fellowship Recipient
Exhibitions
2012 Untitled. Art Miami, Miami, FL; curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud, courtesy 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, NY
Ian Hughes Paintings, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York, NY
Art Wynwood, Miami , FL , 532 Galery Thomas Jaeckel
2011 Aqua Art Miami, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel
2010 Inside Out, Ian Hughes Paintings, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York, NY
Aqua Art Miami, Miami, FL
2009 Paper in the Wind, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel , New York, NY
2003 New Works on Paper, Victoria Munroe Fine Art, Boston, MA
2002 25th Anniversary Exhibition, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
Watercolor: In the Abstract, traveling exhibition:
Hyde Collection Art Museum, Glens Falls, N.Y.
Michael C Rockefeller Arts Center Gallery, SUNY College, Fredonia, NY
Butler Institute of America, Youngstown, OH
Ben Shahn Gallery, William Patterson University, Wayne, NJ
Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1999 Surfing the Surface, DFN Gallery, New York, NY
1998 Abstraction in Process, Artists Space, New York, NY;
(Irving Sandler and Claudia Gould, curators)
1991 White Room: Paintings, White Columns Gallery, New York, NY
Update 1991, White Columns Gallery, New York, NY
1990 Hall Walls, Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, NY
1989 Climate ‘89, Condeso/Lawler Gallery, New York, NY
1988 Drawings, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
1985 Selections 31, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
Awards
1996 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Recipient for Painting
Teaching
2005- current Adjunct Instructor, Foundation Department, Parsons School of Design
2000-2007 Visiting Assistant Professor, Foundation Arts Department, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
1998 Visiting Artist, Bard College, Annandale, NY
1997 Visiting Artist, Brooklyn College MFA Program, Brooklyn, NY
Bibliograph
New American Paintings, Open Studios Press, Boston, MA. March, 2005
Rose, Barbara. “Watercolor: In the Abstract.” Exhibition catalogue essay, September 2001 (color illustration)
Everett, Deborah. “Double Vision: Studio Visit with Ian Hughes.” NY Arts, September 1999, p54. (reproduction)
Johnson, Ken. “Abstraction in Process II.” The New York Times, February 6, 1998, p. E36.
Atamian, Christopher. “Abstraction in Process II.” Review, February 15, 1998.
Gibson, David. “Abstraction in Process II.” NY Arts, March-April 1998, p.17 (reproduction)
Arning, Bill. Update 1991. (exhibition catalogue) Fall, 1991.
Chaet, Bernard. The Art of Drawing (Third Edition). Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1983, (reproductions)
