Shara Hughes' Fantastical Landscapes at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art

Shara Hughes’ exhibition Right This Way (4 May–17 September 2023) imagines fantastical landscapes in clashing, psychedelic colours.

Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg presents new works by the American artist, including a series of paintings inspired by the light and landscape of the Nordic countries.

Hughes’ playful compositions prompt feelings of wonderment and yearning for an undiscovered place of escape. In Healthy Support Systems (2022), abstract patterning and kaleidoscopic hues melt into the canvas to form a fairy-tale world that is at once naturalistic and fictional.

In other paintings, Hughes depicts verdant scenes of towering trees, untouched pools, and winding paths that appear to go on forever. Her invented landscapes create shifting perspectives of nature warped by fantasy that evoke a sense of the familiar made unfamiliar.

Hughes’ dappled paint and bleeding colours draw viewers in, seducing them with fresh textures and enticing them to journey further into her dreamlike worlds.

We spoke to Hughes about her time in Skagen—Denmark’s northernmost town—and at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, and the Scandinavian landscape’s impact on her practice.

‘I found inspiration from the long horizon line across the seas that constantly change. I watched the downward looping tree branches act as human arms, barely kissing the ground before reaching tall towards the sun, and how the light changes over the long-lasting summer days.’

‘I was drawn to how the sand dunes, forests, and wildflowers all harmonise with the climate, despite the harsh winds from the sea. The changing shapes and colours I saw in Denmark repeat themselves in the paintings and drawings.’

Discussing the exhibition title, Hughes explains, ’Right This Way is a phrase typically used by a host to show you to a table. The viewer is their own host guiding themselves through the show. Almost every painting has its own ‘way’ but as the viewer moves through the show, they will make their own, unique path every time they enter the space.’

Walking through the exhibition, paintings hide or reveal themselves to you. Hughes’ sight lines create a push and pull between viewers and artwork, constructing an encounter full of play and discovery.

Main image: Shara Hughes, Healthy Support Systems (2022) (detail). Oil, dye and acrylic on canvas. 243.8 x 182.9 cm. Courtesy the artist, Pilar Corrias, London, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles and New York, and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich.