You're Getting In Your Own Way
Artist
Shara Hughes
American, born 1981
Date2018
MediumOil, acrylic, and acrylic spray paint on canvas
Dimensions47 1/2 × 39 1/2 in. (120.7 × 100.3 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift from the collection of Dr. Carlos Garcia-Velez and Dr. W. Kent Davis in honor of the Matrons of the Arts and Linda Johnson Dougherty
Object number2019.14
On View
Not on viewThe painting depicts a close-up, cropped view of a fantastic forest. Upright tree trunks punctuate the landscape, with a central tree that bisects the entire canvas, blocking the audience’s view of the middle of the canvas. Is it obscuring a subject, or just another tree in this empty landscape? While the title of this piece is an admonition of sorts, it also perhaps refers to this central trunk, which is put directly in the viewer’s way. The skewed perspective, and artistic manipulation of foreground and depth, places the viewer slightly off kilter in Hughes’s surreal landscapes.
[L. Dougherty, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2024]ProvenanceCreated Brooklyn, 2018; collection of the artist; [SOCO Gallery, Charlotte, NC]; Dr. Carlos Garcia-Velez and Dr. W. Kent Davis, Chapel Hill, NC, 2018; given to NCMA, 2019. .
Exhibition HistoryCharlotte, NC, SOCO Gallery, “Shara Hughes: Bold Suns,” March 21–May 11, 2018.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection Reimagined," June 5, 2024-April 21, 2025.
Object Rights Statement
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