Shara Hughes’ Technicolor landscapes channel the spirit of Van Gogh

Image: installation view, Shara Hughes, The Bridge, Yuz Museum, Shanghai

Shara Hughes is an American painter in her mid-career whose works are now in demand. She is best known for her colour soaked, expressive landscapes, which often depict surreal, imaginary worlds.

Hughes’ HENI Score jumped an impressive 124%, after a series of strong sales at auctions plus museum shows. A room of paintings is currently on show at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles. To discover more about Shara Hughes, see her HENI Dashboard.

Hughes is among a group of figurative painters who have been described as closely "watched female artists" because they are rising stars in the art world. [ARTnews] The Atlanta-born, New York-based artist, who took part in the 2017 Whitney Biennial, has had solo museum shows in Lucerne, Shanghai and London.

Hughes’ 2017 work, Rough Terrain sold for an impressive $759,200, more than twice its high estimate. Several other paintings by the artist have sold for more than their high estimate. In 2022, Weeping Blur (2018) sold for a record $1.3m at Christie’s.