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IN FOCUS / ADRIENE HUGHES
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IN FOCUS / ADRIENE HUGHES
Adriene Hughes is a multi-media artist whose current body of work focuses on grand landscapes and the effects of global warming on the environment through the use of infrared technology, photography, and embroidery.
The process of making, from spending time in and with the landscape as well as the photographing of it, has been a healing experience for Hughes, whose practice has been profoundly shaped by her survival of cancer. Since then, her artistic process has evolved towards a singular obsession to the photographic landscape. Environments that are struggling to survive, from the icebergs in the Arctic to the desert of California, have particularly resonated with the artist. Simply being in the presence of the land, the mountains and the trees of these places has allowed for an intense primal connection to nature.
Hughes' project The Secret Life of Trees, began as a series of photographs in 2017 taken during a forest fire in Washington State with the use of an infrared camera. The colours are an anomaly: they are the product of infrared light bending through smoke, combined with a chemical reaction in the leaves that registered a forest in the throes of distress. Through a phenomenon known as the mycorrhizal network, the communities of trees and plants are able to communicate through a complex fungal system. The intervention of embroidery envisions what these biochemical and electrical signals would look like if they were visible to the eye.
In Threaded Icebergs, geometric patterns are used to demonstrate the way wind, language and memory travel, carving into icebergs the stories of the past, present and future. The making of these images is not just a record of the artist's connection to the sublime aura of the arctic, it is also a means of highlighting the environmental emergency that threatens the ice caps along with all living species.
Hughes' photography has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including video installation at Venice Biennial at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, and the Lishui International Photo Festival, China. Recent exhibitions include Klompching Gallery, New York, Centro Cultural (CECUT) Tijuana, Mexico, California Center for the Arts, The Center for Fine Arts Photography at Ft. Collins, San Diego Arts Institute, Sawtooth ARI Tasmania, Microwave International New Media Festival Hong Kong, and Simultan Festival Romania. Her photographs have been featured in many publications including Wired, Harper's Magazine, PDN, Phroom Magazine, German Foto, Humble Arts Foundation, Don't Take Pictures, Lenscratch, PhotoPhore, FeatureShoot, and Crusade For Art. She is also the recipient of the 2018 Rhonda Wilson Award with Klompching Gallery, a 2018 Critical Mass Top 50 recipient, and 2020 Critical Mass finalist. Public Art includes San Diego International Airport and the Boston Convention Centre. She has recently installed a 144 ft. large-scale photographic mural project at the San Diego International Airport, as well as an environmental infrared video installation of the Southern California desert landscape.
Education:
SCHOOL OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS AND TUFTS UNIVERSITY, Boston, MA
Master of Fine Arts
Upcoming:
2022 The Secret Life of Trees, Black Box Projects, London, UKSolo Exhibition:
2019 - 2020 Threaded Icebergs, Lishui International Photo Festival, Lishui, China, Curator Guo JIng
Two Person:
2019 Icebergs and Wildfires, Exhibition with DM Whitman, Klompching Gallery, New York
2018 Photographer Eye's Collective, Escondido, CA. With photographer Amy Caterina, Curator Donna Constantino
2011 Masked/Unmasked. ZTARC Gallery, San Diego, CA. With photographer Rebecca Webb. Curator Justin Hudnall
Group Exhibitions:
2021 Signs of Spring, Black Box Projects, London, UK2021 Three Person Exhibition, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Denver, Colorado
2021 Moved To Act: Demonstrations, Marches & Political Actions, Cambridge Multicultural Center, Cambridge, MA,
2020 The Altered Image: Women Telling Stories with Mixed Media, Dina Mitrani Gallery, Miami, FL
2020 Winter Works, Klompching Gallery, New York
2020 Beyond the Surface: Photograph as Object, Cal Poly State University, Curator Aline Smithson
2020 Endangered: Exploring California's Changing Ecosystems, California Center for the Arts, Curator Danielle Deery
2020 Moved To Act: Demonstrations, Marches & Political Actions, Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA, Curators Feldman/Davis
2020 Moved To Act: Demonstrations, Marches & Political Actions, Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Curators Feldman/Davis
2019 Lishui International Photo Festival, Lishui, China, Curator Guo JIng
2019 Paisanos Photo Project, Mexican Consulate, San Bernardino, CA. Curated by Jim Platel
2019 Paisonos: 100 Artists, 100 Artworks, Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT), Mexico
2019 Forces of Nature (II), Selections from San Diego International Airport, University Club, San Diego, CA
2018 FRESH 2018, Klompching Gallery, NY
2018 Conjured Realities, CENTER Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
2018 Moved To Act: Demonstrations, Marches & Political Actions, Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY< Curators Feldman/Davis
2018 Cruel Summer, BasileIE, Barrio Logan, San Diego, CA
2017 Seeing Sound, curated by Jon Feinstein, Humble Arts Foundation
2017 Flora, Don't Take Pictures
2017 Southern California/Baja Biennial, San Diego Art Institute, Curated by Anthony Graham (MCASD), San Diego, CA
2017 Landscapes, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Juried by Lisa Volpe, Fort Collins, Colorado
2016 Center Forward, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Juried by Aline Smithson and Hamidah Glasgow, Fort Collins, CO
2016 Transitional Landscape, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Juried by Natsha Eagen, Fort Collins, Colorado
2016 Snow, Curated by Alison Zavos, FeatureShoot (online feature)
2012 Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA, Modern Myths, Folklore and Tall Tales
2011 Northeastern University Art Gallery, Boston, MA
2006 Grossmont College Gallery, San Diego CA
2006 Gallery Artists Studio Projects, Mediate Me, Boston, MA
1999 Photographic Resource Center, Boston, Celebrating New Technologies
1999 Boston Cyberarts Festival, Boston, MA
1999 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Public Art:
2019-2021 Forces of Nature, Infrared Video Installation, Terminal 2, San Diego International Airport
2019-2021 Admiral Boland Photographic Mural Project, San Diego International Airport
2016-2017 San Diego International Airport, Intergalactic Dreaming, Year Long Installation
2016 The Resonance of Loss, Boston CybertArts Festival, Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Curator George FifieldVideo Installation:
2019 D/EVOLUTION, Scuola Grande della Misericordia, curated by Zuecca Projects and PhotoPhore, Venice Biennial, Italy
2017-2018 The Resonance of Loss with Future Resonance, Zuecca Projects, Venice, Italy
2016 The Resonance Of Loss, Tasmanian International Video Art Festival, Sawtooth ARI, Tasmania, Australia
2016 The Resonance Of Loss, PhotoPhore: Be Water, Microwave International New Media Festival, Hong Kong
2015 The Criteria of Shape, Four Screen Installation, The Filmmatic Festival, CALIT2, University of California, San Diego
2015 The Criteria of Shape, Single Channel Video, Simultan Festival 2015, Romania
2010 The Fourth Wall / Neurosis / On Becoming a Swan, Single Channel Video, University of California, San Diego
2003 The Blue Room, Single Channel Video, Il Coreografo Elettronico, Naples, Italy
2003 The Fourth Wall, Audio, Cyberlounge, Boston, MA
2002 The Blue Room, Single Channel Video, UCR/California Museum of Photography
2001 The Fourth Wall, Foldover, Audio Broadcast, Oberlin University, Japan
2001 The Fourth Wall, Radio@Art Broadcast, WMBC, University of Maryland
2001 The Fourth Wall, Micro Museum/NY Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn, NY
2001 The Fourth Wall, Boston Cyberarts/NY Foundation for the Arts, Boston, MA
2001 The Fourth Wall, Digital Identity, Better Living Through Bits, Boston, MA
2001 The Fourth Wall, Sound Dome, Dangerous Waves, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2001 The Fourth Wall, Thesis, Tufts University Art Gallery, Boston, MA
2001 Pressure, Sound Installation, Greet Street Gallery, Boston, MA
2001-2002 The Fourth Wall, (International Tour), American Composer's Forum
Musica Nova Sofia, Bulgarian National Radio
Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Oberline University, Japan
National and University Library, Zagreb, Croatia
Metro State University, St. Paul, MN
Los Angeles Harbor College, Los Angeles, CA
Sursum Corda, Minneapolis, MN
Weisman Art Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Block Cinema, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
2001 The Ethnographic Museum of Irrelevant Races, Single Channel Video, Gringo Racism: Mickey Mouse Meets the Taco Bell Chihuahua, Arte
Americas, San Francisco, CA
2000 The Ethnographic Museum of Irrelevant Races, Single Channel Video, MIT and Guillermo Gomez-Pena Installation/Performance, Boston, MA
2000 The Ethnographic Museum of Irrelevant Races, Mobius, Video Space, Boston, MA
2000 On Becoming a Swan & Neurosis, VIDEO, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts
2000 On Becoming a Swan, Sound Art 2000, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts
1999 Random Noise Digital Technology Show, Boston, MA
Awards and Grants
2020 Critical Mass, Finalist
2019 Nomination Orchid Award, Oh Lovely Desert, San Diego Architectural Foundation
2018 Critical Mass, Top 50
2018 Rhonda Wilson Award, Fresh 2018, Klompching Gallery, NY
2016 Focal Point, Crusade for Art, Featured Artist, Mentor Program
2016 Juror's Award, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Transitional Landscape
2015 Outstanding Achievement, First Place, International Color Awards
2015 Honorable Mention, Moscow Photo Awards
2011 Finalist, EMPAC Grant Award, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2010 Nominee, International Color Awards
