About
Please note that some of the above works may no longer be available. See our Stockroom for a range of available works or contact us for a detailed inventory of available works by Sara Hughes.
Sara Hughes
b. 1971 Vancouver, Canada
Lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand
Sara Hughes is a dynamic artist with a career well established and highly regarded in Australasia. Hughes has exhibited in major public galleries in New Zealand and her paintings and installations are held in many important Australasian public and private collections including the Chartwell Collection; Auckland City Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; Te Papa Tongarewa; Wellington and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Her work has attracted significant attention winning both the Wallace Art Award and the Norsewear Art Award in 2005. In 2008 she was the first New Zealand recipient of The RIPE: Art and Australia magazine Art Award and she has been selected to participate in a number of notable residencies including the Francis Hodgkins Fellowship in 2003, the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York in 2007 and the Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists Residency at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in 2008/09.
Hughes completed a BFA and a MFA in painting Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Her work has been published widely appearing in international art and architecture magazines including Art in America, Artlink, Art in Australia and Monument. She is included in Warrick Brown and Liz Caughey's recent anthologies on New Zealand art and she was the featured artist in the spring edition of Art New Zealand, 2010
Education
2000-2001 Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University (Master of Fine Arts)
1999 Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University (Bachelor of Fine Art)
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2012 Harvest, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
2011 The Golden Grain, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
2010 Colour Codes, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
Worldwide Optimism, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
For Kultur, Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery, Hawkes Bay
Heat Wave, Federation Square, Melbourne, Germany
2009 Feedback Runaway, Kunstlerhaus Bathanien, Berlin, Germany
Buy, Sell, Hold, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2008 Scales of Economy, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
United We Fall, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch
2007 The Big Stickup, Suter Art Gallery, Nelson
Flower House, Te Manawa Art Gallery, Palmerston North
2006 Crash, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
The Big Stickup, Hazlehurst Regional Gallery, Sydney
Upload, Criterion Gallery, Hobart, Australia
2005 Patterns of Resistance, Criterion Gallery, Hobart
Wish you Were Here, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington
Beyond the Horizon, Bartley Nees Gallery, Wellington
2004 Digital Mosaics, Vavasour Godkin Gallery, Auckland
Love Me True, Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland
Digital Mosaics, Hocken Library, Otago University, Dunedin
For my Darling, Bartley Nees Gallery, Wellington
2003 Millions of Colours, Bartley Nees Gallery, Wellington
Love me Tender, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
2002 Dot.Land, Te Tuhi, The Mark, Auckland
Places for Paintings, Vavasour Godkin Gallery, Auckland
2001 Dot, Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University
2000 Made in Hong Kong, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland
Selected Group Exhibitions
2012 Melbourne Art Fair, Gow Langsford Gallery, Stand D08
2011 Another Universe, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Peaking the Edge, Pulse Gallery, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A
Top Ten: New Acquisitions for the University of Auckland Art Collection, Gus Fisher Art Gallery, University of Auckland, Auckland
Living Room 2011, Metropolis Dreaming, Mayoral Drive, Auckland
2009 Gow Langsford and John Leech Galleries, Spring Catalogue 2009, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
Sutton Gallery @ Depot Gallery, Danks St, Sydney Australia
2008 A Generous Eye, New Dowse, Lower Hutt, NZ
Are you right not to like contemporary art? Te Manawa Art Gallery, Palmerston North, NZ
2007 In Fluorescents, (with Tim Maguire, Jeff Koons, Reuben Paterson and Karl Maughan) Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland
Sara Hughes: Flower Wall, Te Manawa Gallery, Palmerston North
New Painting: Digital Age, Pataka Gallery, Porirua, Wellington
Of Deities and Mortals, Christchurch City Art Gallery, Christchurch
Red Badge of Courage, National Newark Building, Newark, NJ
Business and Pleasure 2, ISCP, New York, NY
Clean Machine, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland
2006 Pattern Recognition, Object, Sydney
Op Shop, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin
Melbourne Art Fair, Gow Langsford Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Snake Oil, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Code NZ, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Rotterdam Art Fair, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Wallace Art Award, Wallace Arts Trust Gallery, Auckland; Pataka Museum, Wellington
Norsewear Art Award, Hawkes Bay Exhibition Centre, Hastings
2004 Cutting Edges, Gow Langsford Gallery, Sydney
Telecom Prospect 2004: New Art New Zealand, Wellington City Art Gallery
Sticky, Whitecliffe Gallery, Auckland
A Cut Across, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, Australia
Melbourne Art Fair, Bartley Nees Gallery, Melbourne
Waikato Art Award, Waikato Museum, Hamilton
2003 Shine, Vavasour Godkin Gallery, Auckland
Dirty Pixels, Adam Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington
Dirty Pixels, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Dirty Pixels, Waikato Museum of Art & History, Hamilton
Millions of Colours, Bartley Nees Gallery, Wellington
2002 Screens, Vavasour Godkin Gallery, Auckland
Vavasour Godkin Artists at G2, G2 Gallery, Auckland
New Works, Vavasour Godkin Gallery, Auckland
Dirty Pixels, Artspace, Auckland
2001 Provenance, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland
Window Work, Elam Arts festival, Auckland
Summer Show (Matrix), Vavasour Godkin Gallery, Auckland
2000 From, Ramp Gallery, Hamilton
1999 Stewed, Canterbury Arcade, Auckland
Upstarts, Peter Muir Petford Gallery, Auckland
Selected Awards and Grants
2008-09 Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists Residency at the Knstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin
2008 The RIPE: Art and Australia/ANZ Private Bank Contemporary Art Award
2007-08 McColl Centre for Visual Arts Residency,
2005 Wallace Trust Art Awards, Paramount Winner
Norsewear Award 2005, 2D Winner
2004 Waikato National Art Award, Merit
2003 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship recipient
Creative New Zealand Grant
2001 Joe Raynes Scholarship, Auckland University
2000-2001 Auckland University Masters Scholarship
1991 Denise Gerald Scholarship, Auckland University
Selected Commissions
2011 Love Me Tender, Britomart, Auckland
2010 Heatwave, Federation Square, Melbourne
2009 Artbus, Auckland Festival, Auckland
2008 Let me down softly, Charlotte, NC, USA
2006 All my dreams fulfil, Lowe, Auckland
2005 Firewall, St Kentigern College, Auckland
2004 Garden for Joseph, Darling Island Apartments, Sydney
Soft-ware, Auckland University commission
Selected Public and Private Collections
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, NZ
University of Auckland Art Collection, Auckland, NZ
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, NZ
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, NZ
Hocken Pictorial Collections, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ
Te Manawa Art Gallery, Palmerston North, NZ
Wallace Trust Collection, NZ
The Fletcher Trust Collection, Auckland, NZ
Ernst and Young Collection, Auckland, NZ
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Art and Australia Collection, Sydney, Australia
Selected Bibliography
2010 Huddleston, Charlotte, The Spectrum of Sara Hughes: A conversation. Art New Zealand, Vol 135, Spring 2010
Rule, Dan, The colour is right on the money, The Age, 5th May, 2010
Wolf, Richard, “Beyond the Studio”, Artists at work: NZ Painters and Sculptors in the Sudio
2009 Brown, Warwick, Of this Century, anthology of NZ Art, essay, 2008
Gardiner, Sue, “You really had to be there”, Art News, Autumn, 2009
Végh, Christina, “Die Sehnsucht nach Robinson Crusoe oder der Echoraum der Gegenwart in der Abstraktion von Sara Hughes”, Be Magazine, #16, Nanny, 2009
2008 Michael Fitzgerald, Art and Australia, Vol 46, No 2, Summer 2008
Flynn, Paul, Artist Profile, issue 4, 2008
Caughey, Elizabeth, Contemporary New Zealand Art 5
2007 (Cover) Art Monthly Australia, issue 192
Hughes, Sara, ‘I Love NY’, Art News New Zealand, Summer, 2007
Hutchison, Alice, Flower House, Catalogue essay, 2007
Kedgley, Helen, New Painting: Digital Age, Catalogue essay, 2007
2006 Devenport, Rhana, “The big stick up of Sara Hughes”, Artlink Magazine, Vol 26, No 3, 2006
Devenport, Rhana, “The big stick up”, Catalogue essay, 2006
McNamara, T.J, ‘Powerful work on a crash course’, New Zealand Herald, Wednesday May 17, 2006
Paton, Justin, “How to look at a painting”, Ginger Series, Awa Press, 2006
Roke, Rebecca, “dot, dot, dot”, Monument magazine, no 72, 2006
Tessa Laird, “A bigger splash”, The New Zealand Listener, 204, June, 2006
2005 Avery, Susan, Australian Art Collector, Autumn 2005
Chappel, Dan “Love thy neighbour”, NZ Art News, Winter 2005
Devenport, Rhana, Pattern Recognition, Object Magazine, Issue 48, Dec 05
Gardiner, Sue Art Monthly No 177, Australia, March 2005
Gardiner, Sue Art Monthly No 185, Australia, November 2005
Kalina, Richard “Report from New Zealand, Change of Empires”, Art in America, October
Leonard, Robert Snake Oil, Catalogue, 2005
Rankin-Reid, Jane Pattern Resistance review, Australian Art Collector, Issue32, April- June
Rice, Rebecca “Wellington review”, Art New Zealand, Summer 2005-06
2004 Amery, Mark “Painting in NZ alive and kicking”, Dominion Newspaper, 3 September 2004
Angeloro, Dominique Cutting edges, review Sydney Morning Herald, 16 April 2004
Brennan, Stella “Pattern Recognition”, Art New Zealand, Spring 2004
Clifford, Andrew “Maths inspires designing woman”, New Zealand Herald, 30 June 2004
Lambert, Jessie Love Me Tender, review North and South, March 2004
Lonie, Bridie “Mathematica”, The New Zealand Listener, 192, March 2004
Lonie, Bridie “Global or Local, The Melbourne Art Fair”, Art New Zealand, Summer,
McNamara, T.J Love Me Tender review, New Zealand Herald, 19 May 2004
Parkinson, Jaenine Dirty Pixels review, www.nzartmonthly.co.nz, April 2004
Paton, Justin, Brennan, Stella, Hunt, Pennie Sara Hughes, Love Me Tender, Software for Ada, Digital Mosaics, Catalogue publication, 2004
Pendergrast, Kelly “Mosaics of the artist as a young woman”, Critic Te Arohi, No 8,2004
Watson, Arran “Left brain-right brain”, Art Zone, No 4 2004
2003 Dunn, Michael New Zealand Painting a Concise History, 2003
Ellis, Kim “Interview with Sara Hughes, Frances Hodgkins Fellow for 2003” www.nzartmonthly.co.nz, April 2003
Smith, Charmian “Love art a paisley-patterned thing”. OtagoDaily Times. October 9 2003
2002 Brennan, Stella Dirty Pixels, Catalogue essay. September 2002
Campbell, Suzie Dot.land, catalogue essay. February 2002
2000-2001 Laird, Tessa Made in Hong Kong, Catalogue essay, June 2000
Vrbancic, Mario The sublime and the ridiculous, Catalogue essay November 2001
McNamara, T.J Places for paintings review. New Zealand Herald, 15 July 2002
Bill Williams, “Hodgkins Fellowship for Elam Graduate”, University of Auckland News.
November 2002
McNamara, T.J Dot.land, review. New Zealand Herald, 28 January 2002