Patrick Hughes

Perspectivirtuoso

Entering a room of Patrick Hughes' reverse perspective paintings is an overwhelming experience. Horizons thrust themselves forward. Vanishing points jut out when they should recede. It is visual anarchy. All the normal rules of perception are broken and our senses are reeling. We are alone, striving to make sense of all this. Just exactly what is going on?

The artist Patrick Hughes has been making work of extraordinary diversity over the past forty years, confounding the expectations of his audience, by turns delighting and intriguing. He is the author of engaging and provocative books on paradox, puns and oxymoron but it is the sheer impact of standing before his vertiginous large paintings, experiencing these bewildering sensations that reminds us that his is a unique vision in the world of contemporary art.

These meditations on the nature of perception are not in any sense dry, academic theses. As striking visual compositions they positively abound with humour and remain both exhilarating and entertaining.

Glen Baxter reflects on the playful and perplexing panoramas of Patrick Hughes' ever-expanding oeuvre in his introduction toLeft to Write, a new book of collected writings by the artist.

Flowers East are celebrating Patrick Hughes 69^th birthday and the launch ofLeft to Write with a solo show entitledPerspectivirtuoso; a body of astonishing new and recent three-dimensional paintings.

Patrick Hughes lives and works in London. His work is included in important public collections including the British Library, the Tate Gallery, London, the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, the Denver Art Museum and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, North Carolina. To date he has had over 100 solo shows world-wide.