MICHAEL McHUGH
MICHAEL MCHUGH
My work reflects the deep connection I feel with the natural world.
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Growing up, I spent many hours gardening with my father, going for bushwalks, and spending time at the beach playing in the sand and water. All of this gave me an appreciation early in life of the natural world around me. At times in my life now, returning to nature has calmed and heightened my senses.
Throughout my life, nature has provided a haven in which to lose myself. My work not only celebrates the brilliance of nature, it also provides entry for my imagination to a world where I can reconfigure natural forms, both terrestrial and marine. This reinterpretation facilitates the creation of completely new DNA structures, a rare evolution of species from the beauty of the natural environment.
While researching for this exhibition I visited many different gardens, art galleries, libraries and museums. I kept imagining how the portraits and human bodies featured in these historical masterpieces might look like morphed into my very own DNA organic forms and shapes. I began to consider how bodies draped in cloth could become something else, perhaps hanging or upside down.
BIO
SOLO SHOWS
2024 The Accidental Garden Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2024 CHROMA Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2023 Archipelago Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2023 Natural Philosophy Milford Galleries Queenstown New Zealand
2023 Clayton Utz Sydney Australia
2022 The Island Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2022 Hybridology Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2021 Supernatural Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2021 Pacific Street Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2020 Exotics Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2019 Hot House Project 90 Gallery Sydney Australia
GROUP SHOWS
2025 Bloom Group Show Milford Galleries Queenstown New Zealand
2024 Summer Group Show Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia​
2023/2024 The Art of Giving Macquarie University Art Gallery
2023 Sydney Contemporary Martin Browne Contemporary
2023 Winter Group Show Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2023 Facing North Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2023 Kawarau 2 Milford Galleries Queenstown New Zealand
2023 Summer Group Show Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2022 Aotearoa Art Fair (Nov 2022)
2022 Sydney Contemporary Martin Browne Contemporary
2022 Boroondara Town Hall Art Gallery Above the Canopy Hawthorn Melbourne
2022 Caught in the Briars Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2022 McHugh/Hudson/Parker/Patterson Milford Galleries Queenstown New Zealand
2022 Melbourne Art Fair Martin Browne Contemporary
2021 Summer Group Show Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2021 Summer Exhibition Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2021 Winter Group Show Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2021 Sydney Contemporary Sydney Australia (Online)
2020 Summer Exhibition Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2020 Summer Group Show Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2020 Sydney Contemporary Sydney Australia (Online)
2020 Semicolon Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2020 Winter Group Show Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2020 Flora & Fauna Foenander Galleries Auckland New Zealand
2019 Summer Group Show Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney Australia
2019 Pop Up Group Exhibition Project 90 Sydney Australia
2019 Summer Group Exhibition Project 90 Sydney Australia
AWARDS
2024 Finalist Fisher’s Ghost Art Award Campbelltown Arts Centre
2023 Finalist Fisher’s Ghost Art Award Campbelltown Arts Centre
2023 Finalist York Botanic Art Prize Gallery 152 York WA
2023 Finalist Korea-Australia Arts Foundation Art Prize
2020 Finalist Paddington Art Prize Defiance Gallery Sydney Australia
EDUCATION
2018 Masterclass in Painting Certificate National Art School Sydney Australia
1999 Professional Publishing and Media Stanford University California USA
1987 Whitecliffe College of Arts Design Diploma Auckland New Zealand