Ariane Hughes’ paintings explore the darker, often unsettling aspects of beauty and perfection. She engages with themes of organic and figurative forms, blending unsettling elements with body parts to create a tension between refinement and dark humour. With a penchant for body horror, Hughes navigates the boundaries of sensuality and discomfort, infusing her work with wistful, melancholic undertones—a romantic yearning that transforms darker themes into paradoxically beautiful compositions. These works balance veiled eroticism with a disquieting allure.
This paradoxical duality manifests through smooth, polished surfaces and meticulous attention to detail, where textures like skin, fur, or wood are carefully rendered. The illusion of tactility is achieved while maintaining the canvas's seamless finish, further underscoring the tension between the ideal and the imperfect.
Driven by an ongoing quest for perfection, Hughes’ process is both exploratory and introspective, grappling with the tension between her envisioned ideals and the inherently imperfect outcomes of creation. Her refined technique, with its focus on smooth finishes and implied textures, reinforces this ongoing dialogue. It informs a body of work that captures the fragility and fragmented nature of human experience.
Many of her paintings appear to observe the viewer, creating a sense of voyeurism that reverses the direction of observation. By embodying the gaze rather than merely reflecting it, this dynamic interplay challenges conventional perspectives of observation and interpretation, adding depth to her sensual and unsettling themes.