Richard Hughes

We are pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Richard Hughes in Scandinavia. After introducing Hughes into the gallery programme via a group exhibition in early 2004, the gallery now presents new sculptures and installation work.

Richard Hughes' practice reflects the more prosaic aspects of urban existence, using a combination of found and made objects. His preoccupation with urban environments and the subcultures existing therein is articulated through objects that are re-made to resemble familiar, discarded objects, yet transformed as to make something unexpected and spectacular from the everyday. Hughes' adaptations and methods of duplication, casting new objects from the detritus of urban life engage the viewer to see not only the copy of the found object, but an object which has an aspiration to change the way we perceive.

The works are hand-made simulacra and propose a revised version of the original. In some works he uses a close to photo-realistic depiction of the object, in others the reproductive process has distorted the object creating an inexact copy of the original. Hughes' engagement with both the material substance of found objects and their site or location includes using the surrounding environment itself as material within the work. Transferring this to the exhibition site, he often alters the gallery space to create the illusion of ageing paintwork, or wallpaper peeling away from the walls. The viewer is challenged to assemble the image piece by piece through a process of visual recognition and personal associations.

With a great deal of humour, Hughes plays with our associative connections and often locates points in recent popular cultural history making reference to the design, photography and psychedelic imagery of the 1960s and '70s, as well as the music and club-culture of the 1980s and early 90s. The references though, some more explicit than others, disguise the readability of the works, and are on closer inspection gentle commentaries on collective states of being - such as the group experiences found in any subculture.

These references to the popular culture of the past is more aesthetic than political: The use of e.g.: fluorescent dyed paper as seen in commercial advertisement and in techno party flyers, as well as the 80s graphic style of 'bubble text', show a certain nostalgia for a lost moment. The artist describes his work as being 'after the event,' where a significant moment has passed and the scene has moved on, but traces of it are left... As the ideologies that initially informed the event are discarded, all that is left is regret and nostalgia.

Richard Hughes (Born 1974 in Birmingham) graduated from Goldsmiths College in London in 2003. Exhibited widely in Europe and the US with solo exhibitions at Roma Roma Roma, Rome (2003), The Showroom, London (2004), and The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2005). Group exhibitions in 2005 include Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, Pala Fuksas, Turin, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, Gladstone Gallery, New York, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, ICA - Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, Edinburgh City Art Centre, and the British Art Show at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead now touring the UK.

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Richard Hughes
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