Shara Hughes: Inside Outside

Shara Hughes: Inside Outside is both a retrospective and a forward-looking exhibition, showcasing the range of the artist's talent in her first mid-career survey at the Norton. Known for her large-scale, vibrant, surreal landscapes, Hughes blurs the line between representation and abstraction. Her bold use of color, dynamic compositions, and shifting perspective, Hughes’ work challenges traditional conventions of landscape painting. Shara Hughes: Inside Outside features a selection of her earlier works spanning the past two decades, recent paintings, and new ceramic pieces created during her residency at the Norton, in collaboration with the Armory Art Center. When viewed in unison, these works offer insight into Hughes’ ongoing exploration of material, form, and spatial experience.

Shara Hughes: Inside Outside reflects on themes of windows and portals—looking inward and outward—as it moves between the built world and nature, and ideas of containment and expansion. The artist translates the psychological complexity of her inner world onto the canvas, crafting kaleidoscopic visions of a constantly evolving environment. Ultimately, Hughes’ work unpacks the richness and complexity of the internal human experience, offering a space for audience contemplation and opportunities for respite within our current frenzied world.