Alec Hughes
Heavily influenced by abstract expressionism, my art is an attempt to create simple expressions of complex thoughts. Working with light, color, composition, and materiality, I seek to immerse myself in alternate realities that surround and envelope. Frequently a healing process, this approach helps control often intensely painful periods of severe depression.
Reality doesn't always play well with me, and often I struggle to play well with it. I thrive when I find organization, balance, alignment....hungering to discover a deeper inner need to somehow create order out of chaos. Photography gives me an opportunity to try and tame that chaos. Give it context, give it shape, give it form. By visually capturing the inherent structure of things, I feel more grounded and connected to the foundation that surrounds me....it gives me faith that underneath everything, perhaps some element of order does exist in life.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Alec Hughes was recognized with creative arts and photography awards at an early age. He received an acting scholarship to attend the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with a B.A. in Physical Anthropology. After putting a creative life on hold after college to spend 40 years succeeding in Corporate America, he's rediscovered his passion for art-making. In addition to doing his own work, he has served as a board member on several not-for-profits, such as the Pasadena Symphony, the Pacific Asia Museum, and the 2014 SFMOMA Modern Ball Dinner committee. Currently working out of Art Explosion's Alabama Street Studios in San Francisco, he was recently featured in the Fall 2020 SF Open Studios: A Very Special Edition.