In January last year, Anton Kern Gallery opened its newest space for viewing, WINDOW: two street facing vitrines located at 91 Walker Street. Since its inaugural exhibition of works by John Bock and David Shrigley, WINDOW has hosted street exposed yet intimate viewings of works by several leading artists. For its latest display, Anton Kern Gallery presents new works from UK-based artist Richard Hughes.
Hughes’ practice involves making extraordinarily meticulous facsimiles of objects that most would consider detritus. He instead finds wonder in the discarded, found, and bizarre; sometimes instilling trompe l’oeil messages and images to create a marvelous new livelihood in the source material. On the Lafayette side of WINDOW is one such work, Rain or Shine: a sewn recreation of an old, saggy mattress. At first glance, it is easy to perceive the object as something one ought to trash from their childhood bedroom. Look longer, and magic emerges– the stitching of the topper actually forms a sprawling phrase in bubble letters.
On the Walker side is an installation of four works, including a new stitched fabric piece accompanied by a cast mask. Consisting of sourced space t-shirts, Hughes has created a collaged galaxy out of the vintage store mundane; it is accompanied by a recreation of a face mask resting on the floor, the eyes gazing up in slightly melted wonder at the universe. Other works include a cheerfully dirty headboard; a resin cast of a half leg wearing a roller skate; and one of Hughes’ spinning works, in which a deflated ball wearing a cap grins at viewers from a dizzying metal coil.
The display runs from January 20 – February 28 at 91 Walker Street. The works are on view all day and night.
For further information please visit the Anton Kern Gallery
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