Laura Hughes is a visual artist based in Portland, OR, who creates site-specific installations that investigate how light, form and space surround and shape one another in our perception. Directly responding to the given features of architectural space, she manipulates reflective materials and artificial or natural light to navigate dimensional relationships, intersecting planes, and shifting visibilities relative to surface, space, and the movements of viewers.
Her work has been exhibited at: the Portland International Airport (Portland, OR), Kathrin Cawein Gallery at Pacific University (Forest Grove, OR), Linfield College Gallery (McMinnville, OR), Fortune Gallery (Portland, OR), the de Menil Gallery (Groton, MA), Littman Gallery (Portland State University), The Art Gym at Marylhurst University (Marylhurst, OR), LxWxH (Seattle, WA), Disjecta Contemporary Arts Center (Portland, OR), White Box University of Oregon (Portland, OR), the Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA), Archer Gallery at Clark College (Vancouver, WA), Gallery Homeland (Portland, OR), Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR), Vancouver City Hall (Vancouver, WA), Ditch Projects (Springfield, OR), Appendix Project Space (Portland, OR), the Portland Building (Portland, OR), Atelier Gallery (Vancouver BC), the Art Gallery of Calgary (Calgary, AB) and the Banff Centre (Banff, AB).
Originally from Canada, Hughes has received multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the Oregon Arts Commission, the Ford Family Foundation, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. She was a finalist for the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards from the Portland Art Museum, received a Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission, and nominated for the Brink Award at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. Hughes received an MFA in Visual Studies from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR), and a BFA in Drawing with Distinction from the Alberta College of Art & Design (Calgary, AB). She teaches undergraduate and graduate students at Portland State University and the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
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