Art

Imagine Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s zanier DIY makeover moments captured in Matisse-style colours and executed in materials found in a child’s pencil case, and one gets a pretty good idea of Shara Hughes’ eccentric interior paintings. Using various media (including glitter and sequins, spray paint and plastic paper) Hughes happily mixes and matches colours, patterns and perspectives as well as references to various art historic periods and genres for her imagined spaces. The results are quirky and fun. It’s hard not to get hooked trying to explore the imaginative and absurd details.

Paintings-within-paintings, puzzling geometric shapes in odd perspective, a wall covered in climbing plants, stairs leading to nowhere or a mysterious pot of gold are only some of the obscure items to be found in Hughes’ clashing interiors. A carpet with Jackson Pollock-style drips is juxtaposed with the oriental fabric of a settee, while an oversize orange chandelier with lights made out of glittery silver paper hangs from a pink speckled ceiling.

Careless dabs of paint adorn the walls as if Hughes hadn’t been able to make up her mind which colour to choose. It doesn’t matter. In this surreal, but organised, chaos it somehow seems to make sense. With titles like ‘That’s a Wall of Plants’ or ‘It’s my Pot of Gold’, Hughes seems to pre-empt questions of the puzzled viewer with dry, matter-of-fact answers. Everything is just what it is. There are no hidden meanings or narratives, but then this is what makes her work so charming.