SHARA HUGHES

Early Years

Hughes was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1981. She completed a BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004. Hughes later attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Shara Hughes Artworks

Shara Hughes is best known for her bright, invented landscapes, which merge memory, illusion, and observation with expressive brushwork and wild, sometimes clashing, palettes. Hughes rarely refers to external images, instead creating painted worlds that reflect her inner vision and emotional state. ‘I work intuitively’, Hughes has said. ‘I don’t mix up palettes or lay anything out, so when I’m painting, I’m reacting to what I’ve just done. Working this way makes it exciting for me to paint because I never know what’s going to happen. I think that’s why my work seems alive and playful’.

Interiors and Early Work

In the early part of her career, Hughes created narrative interiors that blended domestic motifs with imagined views out of windows, using the format to weave multiple stories and explore psychological states within pictorial space.

Invented and Psychological Landscapes

Hughes transitioned to landscapes that merge abstraction and representation, building fantastical, densely painted scenes with undulating forms, stippled skies, and surreal foliage. Her approach is deeply intuitive, constructing each composition in real time without preparatory sketches or references. Shifting perspectives, patterned motifs, and an intense, often dissonant use of colour characterise her dreamlike, panoramic scenes.

Flower Series and Botanical Explorations

In Lieu of Flowers (Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, 2019), Hughes presented a series of paintings focused on the motif of flowers, but suggestive of metaphorical portraits imbued with expressive, humanlike traits. She uses a wide range of brushstrokes and materials, favouring playfulness and generosity with colour and gesture to foster openness of interpretation.

Public Projects and Murals

In 2018, Hughes completed Carving Out Fresh Options, a major public mural at Dewey Square Park, Boston, commissioned by the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy in partnership with the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Other public commissions include Wander and Wonder at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix (2023).

Other Select Awards and Accolades

• Joan Mitchell Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center (2007)
• Working Artist Project, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia (2012)
• Florence Leif Painters Award, Rhode Island School of Design (2004)
• Dedicated room at the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017)

Share Hughes Exhibitions

Shara Hughes has had solo and group exhibitions at respected galleries and major institutions internationally.

Solo Exhibitions

• The Perfect Tense, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2025)
• Tree Farm, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich (2024)
• Right This Way, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark (2023)
• Time Lapsed, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland (2022)
• The Bridge, Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2021–2022)
• Garden Museum, London, England (2021)
• Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2021)
• Pivot, Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2021)
• Guess You Had to Be There, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta (2014)

Group Exhibitions

• Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017)
• MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts
• High Museum of Art, Atlanta
• Day for Night: New American Realism, Palazzo Barberini, Rome (2024)

Her works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Denver Art Museum, High Museum of Art (Atlanta), Dallas Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Saint Louis Art Museum, Si Shang Art Museum (Beijing), and the Yuz Museum (Shanghai).

More Reading

Ocula Magazine studio visit: Hughes discusses her approach to colour, intuition in painting, and how shifting daylight changes her perception of tone and light.

Shara Hughes FAQs

Ocula | 2025