British artist Richard Dean Hughes describes the slippery relationship between the real and hypothetical. Hughes often revisits and describes a personal and internal space, taking artifacts, feelings and ‘visuals’ from imagined scenarios, bringing them into real time through the manipulation of material and collisional objects. His sculptures question the idea of plausibility, they question their own existence, acting as a representational display of the space in which Hughes is trying to describe.
Suggestion and the idea of plausibility is central to Hughes’s practice, repeated motifs and a collisional approach create unordinary but persuasive coalescence. He theoretically and conceptually slices up the time-based elements of an object, then hypothetically stitches them back together; treating the concept and history of an object as something that can be manipulated to create a new scenario, extract meaning and tell a new story.
Hughes incorporates a wide range of traditional processes alongside new technologies, and an ever-growing array of materials from resin, metal and paint, to dust and newspaper. Using small tools to carve certain works, then stereo-lithography to produce others; like his work, Hughes shifts and morphs, reacting to the concept, and the language of generated ideas.
Hughes is able to draw from his material repertoire to continue an exploration of duality, the materiality and concepts of his work belong in two places at one time, can be 2 things at the same time; both hot and cold, utilitarian and absurd.
He lives and work in Manchester, UK.
Exhibitions and Events:
2023 - 'Ubiquitous no.14.' Tube Gallery, Palma, Spain.
2023 - 'Centre Of the Periphery.' Pipeline Gallery, London.
2022 - 'Everything at Once.' Generation and display, London, Duo show
2022 - Art Maze Magazine, issue 24 - https:artmazemag.com/issue-24/
2022 - Floorr Magazine, issue 10 - Featured Interview http://www.floorrmagazine.com/
2021 - 'Subliminal Thaw' Night Time Story, Los Angeles, Online Solo Show
2021 - 'Off Trail' Air Gallery, Manchester
2021 - 'Vent' 9A Gallery, Todmorden Yorkshire, Duo Show
2020 – ‘Soft Display’ Division Of Labour, Worcester
2020 – ‘When Shit Hit’s The Fan' Guts Gallery, London (Online)
2020 – ‘A Better Feeling’ A Better feeling, (collaboration with design company) – Paris France
2019- ‘The Manchester Contemporary’ Solo Booth, Paradise Works, Manchester Central
2019 – ‘Millenialism’ Paradise Works, Salford
2018 – (Solo Show) ‘No Cigar’ Goldtapped Gallery, Newcastle
2018 – The Manchester Contemporary – Show Me Up
2018 – Feature – Rung Magazine – Produced and curated by East Bristol Contemporary
2018 – ‘Merry Go Round Broke Down’ AIR Gallery, Altrincham
2018 – ‘Tipping The Scales’ Paradise Works, Salford, Manchester
2017 – ‘A Show About The Show’ Scaffold Gallery, Manchester
2017 – ‘Pupa’ Assembly House, Leeds
2017 – ‘Is This Real Life??’ Curated by I.O.U.A.E, B&D studios, Newcastle
2017 – ‘PLAY’ Bankley Gallery, Manchester
2017- ‘Duizend Bommen En Granaten’ Stitching White Cube, Kunsthal 45, Den Helder Netherlands
2017 – ‘Limbic’ Cuddle Projects, Art Hub, London
2017 – ‘Stick Or Twist’ Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
2017 – ‘Mono’ PS Mirabel Gallery, Manchester
2016 – Global Village – Stitching White Cube:
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Honig-factory, Zuideinde 74, 1541 CE Koog a/d Zaan, the Netherlands
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Youth Hostel, Richard-Schirrmann-Weg 6, 84028 Landshut, Germany
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Kulturhuset Brønden, Brøndby Strand Center 60, 2660 Brøndby Strand, Denmark
2016 – MarlerKunst 2016, Essen, Germany
2016 – ‘Darkness Can Not Drive Out Darkness, Only Light Can Do That’ Lights of Soho, London
2016 – ‘Ambition – Instigate Arts’ HOME Gallery, Manchester
2016 – ‘Spectrum’ PS Mirabel Gallery, Manchester
2015 ‘XerXes Sculpture Prize’ Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park, London
2015 ‘A Slow Passion’ Federation House: Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Space Manchester
2015 – ‘Our Hands Were Always Dirty But Our Minds Were Always Clean’ Fallout Factory, Liverpool
2014 – ‘Noise Festival 2014 Launch’ Curators choice: Tim Marlow. House of Commons, London
2014 – ‘The Best New Creatives’ ‘Noise 2014’ Better Bankside and Southbank, London
2014 – ‘Noise at The Tetley’ The Tetley, Leeds