Des Hughes (born 1970) is a British artist who lives and works in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

. He completed an MA in fine art at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

, London in 2002, following a BA in fine art at Bath College of Art in 1994. Hughes' sculptural practice engages with traditional sculptural materials in new and inventive ways: mixing bronze with organic material for instance. He is also fascinated by the strangeness of British art, whether it be primitive art, strange craft objects or the reinvention of landscape, still life in British Surrealism and modernist British sculptural history. He has guest curated an exhibition at

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

and has been longlisted for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London.

Exhibitions

Hughes' work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally including Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (2005), Michael Benevento, Los Angeles (2008),

Frieze Art Fair Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Frieze London takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. In the US, the fair ran on New York's Randall's Island from 2012–19 and in 2 ...

(2010),

Nottingham Contemporary Nottingham Contemporary (formerly known as the Centre for Contemporary Art Nottingham (CCAN)) is a contemporary art centre in the Lace Market area of Nottingham. The gallery opened in 2009. The gallery describes its site as being "the oldest in ...

(2010), Ancient & Modern London (2012), Buchmann Galerie, Berlin (2013), Manchester Art Gallery (2013), The Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green, UK (2014) and

The Hepworth Wakefield The Hepworth Wakefield is an art museum in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, which opened on 21 May 2011. The gallery is situated on the south side of the River Calder and takes its name from artist and sculptor Barbara Hepworth who was born an ...

, UK (2015-spring 2016). Selected group shows include Bart Wells Institute, Hamish McKay, Wellington, New Zealand (2004), Art Out of Place,

Castle Museum, Norwich Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of England. The castle was used as a ...

(2005), Strange Weight, Martos Gallery, New York (2007), Strange Events Permit Themselves the Luxury of Occurring, Camden Arts Centre, London (2007), Art Now: Beating the Bourds,

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

, London (2009), Never The Same River (Possible Futures, Probable Pasts), Camden Arts Centre, London, curated by Simon Starling (2010) and 'BigMinis, Fetishes of Crisis', curated by Alexi Vaillant, CAPC Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux (2010) Dystopia, CAPC, Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux (2011), Sometimes I wish I could just disappear', David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen (2011), The Sleepers, Clare Woods and Des Hughes,

Pallant House Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th-century British art in the world. History The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by ...

, UK (2016)

Collections

Hughes' work is held in many major collections including the Arts Council Collection, Whitworth Art Gallery and

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Des British artists British contemporary artists Living people 1970 births Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London