Patrick Hughes

Known worldwide for originating unique optical paintings called “reverspectives,” the career of British artist Patrick Hughes spans over five decades. Playing with perspective and distance, Hughes’ iconic landscapes appear like three-dimensional reliefs, warping the physical space of the picture plane. Depicting towering buildings, everyday artifacts, paneled windows and stacks of books in folded rows of dream-like space, Hughes often pulls in direct reference points from art history, such as the paintings of Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian and his Pop contemporaries like Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko. His surreal spaces use corners and angled walls to create dynamic interiors, of which Hughes says, “Making things in perspective is taking experience as a solid rather than an ever-changing relationship.”

Since his first solo show in 1961 at the Portal Gallery, London, Hughes has exhibited his reverspectives in hundreds of exhibitions throughout the world. Notable solo shows include Osthaus Museum, Germany, Flowers Gallery, New York, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England, ICA, London, Camden Arts Centre, London, and Musee D’Art Moderne et D’Art Contemporain, France, among many others.