HALO DRAWINGS

Twelve drawings by Richard Hughes

Richard Hughes’ series of ‘Halo Drawings’ are all based on found images from record sleeves, music books and magazines unearthed in second-hand shops and markets. While some of the figures are more well-known than others, they were chosen purely for their shared quality of having halos made by backlit stage lighting or sunlight. Some pieces nod to images of saints, and the backlit hair offers a suggestion of another time captured on film.

All the drawings are made using washes of watercolour before Hughes works in with coloured pencils. The pieces move on from his earlier (often monotone) pencil drawings with more vibrant colours being layered to achieve various luminescent effects. The source photographs act as a guide for the artist, with the colours (for background, figure and light) being chosen as the drawing develops. Hughes’ technique varies subtly throughout the series so he can enjoy the process and adapt the style depending on the portrait.

The collection consists of twelve original drawings. Each work is made using watercolour and coloured pencil on paper and measures 22.8 × 15.3 cm / 9 × 6 in (sold unframed). Scroll down to shop this exclusive collection and learn more about Hughes' rich and varied practice.

Hughes’ work is typically sculptural in nature, and draws from a multitude of references - cultural, social and historical, as well as personal - each reference being filtered through his own immediate experience, as if pulled from the catalogue of things that are around us: TV, music, beliefs, stories, the places we visit on purpose and by accident, aspects of our upbringing, reactions to our circumstances. Appearing as familiar, sometimes everyday objects or structures, these meticulously constructed sculptures are painted casts from polyester resin, they are created replicas of discarded, useless items, which have long passed their best days. Hughes gives them a second life, suspending them at a point of deterioration. Imbued with a morbid humour, his practice also makes reference to Victorian graveyards, memento moris, his own upbringing within urban and suburban locations, such as his hometown of Birmingham, the 1980s and 1990s and their various subcultures. Hughes’ works might be seen as literary - assemblages that evoke notions of abandonment and memorial - but which can also create a sense of the enchanted and the sublime.

Image: If socks aren’t pulled up heads will roll, 2009 (detail). Glass reinforced polyester, iron powder, polyurethane and acrylic. 301 × 62.5 × 28 cm / 118 1/2 × 24 5/8 × 11 in

In 2022, Hughes presented 'Paperwork' at the Aird's Lane Bricks Space, where he exhibited works on paper for the first time–each made with rudimentary materials and limited space during lockdown. Of the works, Hughes remarked ‘the choices of subject matter hint at, but are not directly referencing lots of varied sources, and half remembered images from the past. Album sleeves, book illustration, t shirt designs etc. Memories of the poster rack in a Woolworths or a comic shop and browsing the images without knowing if they were for a band, a book, a film or tv series. They might be motivational, religious, wise cracking, or demonstrations of flawless technique. Pre internet when things could be mysterious and unknown. The pastime / youth group / culture they belonged to didn’t entirely matter to me, but the idea of producing an image that might appear in thousands of rooms across the globe has always had an appeal. I see these works as handmade posters. Recalling the mass produced, but individually drawn as unique one offs.’

View Exhibition

Image: Installation view 'Paperwork', The Modern Institute, Aird's Lane Bricks Space, Glasgow, 2022

Richard Hughes (b. 1974, Birmingham; Lives and works in Herefordshire) has had solo exhibitions at ‘The Great Perhaps’, Anton Kern Gallery, New York (2019); ‘Field Trip’, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow (2014); ‘Scene Inbetween’, Nils Staerk, Copenhagen (2014); Anton Kern Gallery, New York (2013); ‘Time is over, time has come’, Firstsite, Colches- ter, UK (2013); ‘Where It All Happened Once’, Tramway, Glasgow (2012); ‘Endless Bummer’, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels (2011); ‘nothing left, it’s alright’, The Modern Institute/Roberston Street, Glasgow (2008) and ‘KEEP ON ONNIN’’, The Sculpture Court, Tate Britain (2006). His work has been exhibited internationally, including presentations at the Bergen Kunsthall (2015); François Pinault Collection, Punta della Dogana, Venice (2009); the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2008); and the Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany (2006). Hughes was selected for the 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh (2008); the fourth Liverpool Biennial (2006), and the British Art Show 6 (2005). He was nominated for the Beck’s Futures award in 2006 and was the recipient of the EAST International award in 2003.

To see a broader overview of exhibitions and artworks by Richard Hughes, visit his artists' page on the gallery website.

Richard Hughes at The Modern Institute

Image: The Scaries, 2022 (detail). Cast fibreglass and polyester resin, enamel paint. 41 × 32 × 8 cm / 16 1/8 × 12 5/8 × 3 1/8 in