Shara Hughes. Photo: Blaine Davis
On Edge, Shara Hughes’s first major solo exhibit in the United States, presents a survey of her work spanning the past seven years. The exhibit, which is now on display at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, includes more than 30 paintings, drawings, and prints. The paintings depict colorful, magical imagined places that leave the viewer questioning the reality of what they are viewing. Hughes talked with us about her work and what her first solo exhibit in the U.S. means to her.
You mentioned experiencing a shift in your work in 2015. Can you describe how your work changed?
My works leading up to my shift in 2015 were most directly based on personal experiences that lead me to work narratively and symbolically. When I moved to New York, I was shifting out of feeling like I needed to make work based on something specific. I was looking for a way to make paintings that could set me free and decided to make landscapes that weren’t linked to a narrative or a reason. The landscapes allow me to access may other areas of concept and formal ideas outside of narrative based work. It can be both and neither at the same time. It can be figurative and abstract, a painting and an experience.
What did you learn from this shift in your work?
I quickly learned that the link to working this way was myself and the idea of “wherever you go, there you are” was more true than ever. I wouldn’t and couldn’t escape myself, which turned out to be the secret. Realizing that I was enough without a reason freed myself from the binds of explanation, and the work took on a whole other level of understanding.
I read that you don’t use narratives in your current work. Where do you get your ideas?
I don't use narrative in the way that we traditionally think of narratives. I don't start from telling a story in one way or another. I lead myself into the painting by working subconsciously and abstractly. Naturally, I'm thinking about what’s happening in the news or in my personal life. I believe that what I'm thinking about and going through at the time transfers to the painting in one way or another.
At the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, I was making sun paintings that spoke to the hopes and fears of what the end of the pandemic might look like. The start of a new day can be refreshing but daunting at the same time. I'm always working from something I'm reacting to, whether it’s from the actual formalities of the paint or from my emotional state at the time or from my reactions to personal issues or world views.
Can you tell me about the title of the exhibit?
The title On Edge can be flexible in its meaning–on the edge of abstraction and on the edge of representation. It can mean agitated or antsy, always moving or changing. It can also mean on the edge of something great or some kind of problem that can be fixed. It can mean up close but not all the way.
I think the title can suggest going up to the edge but not all the way off. I like to lead the viewer into the paintings and works on paper by giving them suggestions of place or a feeling but not completely describing everything and laying it all out for the viewers. In many ways, viewing art is a collaboration from the viewer and the artist. I acknowledge that each viewer brings their own experience to the table, so I'm allowing them to have that space without me answering all the questions.
What does it mean to you to have your first solo show in the U.S.?
This show is a really big deal for me. It’s my first museum show in the U.S. that combines several years of work. I'm really happy with how the show turned out, as it really showcases my range with the paintings and the works on paper. I'm thrilled to have had this opportunity with CAM, and it’s a big milestone in my career that I hope can continue with future museum shows in the U.S.
Lastly, can you tell us what you’re currently working on?
Currently, I'm working on a large mural project that will be installed in Los Angeles in January. From there, I will be working on my next museum show that opens in Luzern at the Kunstmuseum Luzern. My solo show will be at the same time David Hockney's solo show will be on view there as well, so I'm very much excited to see how our works will mesh.
I have a solo show at the YUZ museum in Shanghai that opens in November. I won't be able to attend, but I will show my largest painting to date, a 40-foot -ong painting that I made in upstate New York this past spring.
Shara Hughes: On Edge, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 3, 2021–February 13, 2022. Photo: Wil Driscoll.
Hughes returns to St. Louis this week to give a talk with Chief Curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi on Wednesday, October 13 at 6 p.m. at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
