Ronnie Hughes began his career as an artist after receiving an MA in Fine Art from the University of Ulster. Since then, Hughes has had numerous solo shows in Ireland and taken part in prestigious group shows in New York, Chicago, London and Germany. As an award-winning artist, Hughes has been the selected for highly sought residencies such as a one-year residency in New York, and three-month residencies at Banff Arts Center, Canada and Bemis Arts Center, Nebraska.
As part of a national tour that will see Hughes’ work travel to Limerick City Gallery and The Royal Hibernian Dublin, Hughes’ latest solo show has opened in The Model. ‘Strange Attractors’ is an exhibition of elegant abstracts. Hughes work is complex: registering everything from an existential longing to understand the world to theoretical psychics. Hughes’ work is also aesthetically pleasing, with blasts of clashing colour and kitschy geometrics reminiscent of late 1960’s American interior design.
The ‘Strange Attractors’ journey begins in gallery A. Gallery A houses some of Hughes, small scale more intimate works. Colour Mechanics, (2016) Klacto, (2016) and Polychrome (2016) are stand out pieces. The theory of using a confined small to showcase Hughes smaller works continues into Gallery B, which showcases dynamic pieces like Cascade (2017), Palette (2017) & Limbo (2017). Gallery C, D and East present Hughes’ larger, visually dominating works. The lofty spaces balances the larger pieces well, particularly Badass (2016) and Klikkak (2015), by setting them opposite other pieces, creating a confrontational effect between these strange attractors.
As well as painting, Hughes show offers a series of gouache drawings. The symmetry of line created within Propus I, Propus II and Propus III, located in Gallery C, are heavily reminiscent of infamous imagery of theoretical physics and science fiction, making the exhibition a very optically interesting experience. Hughes ‘strange attractors’ is not limited to geometrical forms. With the exhibition, strokes of loose, free-forming chaotic lines and shapes appear amongst more, formal structured shapes.
Ronnie Hughes: Strange Attractors will be on show in The Model until 22. Jun. 2017.