Eoin Mc Hugh creates imagery that is hyper-real and, at times, hyper-surreal. His approach to sculpture, painting and drawings is underpinned by a fascination with the psychology of images, psychoanalytic theory and histories of art, literature, language and mysticism. Mc Hugh’s work operates in the chasm between language and unconscious thought, giving physical expression to the most mysterious processes of the psyche and manifold phenomena of the world. His paintings present warped phantasmagoric visions executed with the precision and scrupulous clarity of 17th-century Dutch Old Masters, an enduring point of reference. Antiquarian objects such as display cases, dioramas, models, rugs, taxidermied creatures and curiosities are fragmented, reordered, dismembered or made uncanny. Mc Hugh’s oeuvre, at turns delicate and macabre, meditates on various metaphysical states of change including darkness and lightness, solidity and liquidity, softness and focus. At the core is a sense of mutability, invention and experimentation, prying into the dark caverns of the mind as well as the various forms of knowledge that have the power to illuminate it.
Eoin Mc Hugh lives and works in Berlin.
Eoin Mc Hugh
Orzchis caldemia, 2018-2019
acrylic ink and watercolour on paper
56 x 72.5 cm / 22 x 28.5 in paper size
70.5 x 87 cm / 27.8 x 34.3 in framed
Eoin Mc Hugh
io, pp. 37-42, 2016-2019
pigment ink on paper
six pages, 15 x 20 cm / 5.9 x 7.9 in each
54.7 x 49.7 x 2.5 cm / 21.5 x 19.6 x 1 in framed
Collection of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Eoin Mc Hugh
Loje, jelo, laso, 2018-2019
watercolour, acrylic ink, coloured pencil on paper
56 x 72.5 cm / 22 x 28.5 in paper size
70.5 x 87 cm / 27.8 x 34.3 in framed
Eoin Mc Hugh
Vostok, 2016
oil on canvas
37 x 47 cm / 14.6 x 18.5 in
Collection of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Eoin Mc Hugh
the skies will be friendlier then, 2014
wool and mixed media
306 x 492 cm / 120.5 x 193.7 in
Eoin Mc Hugh
Common coding, 2015
oil on canvas mounted on aluminium
76.5 x 57 cm / 30.1 x 22.4 in
Collection of The Tia Collection, Santa Fe
Eoin Mc Hugh
transparency, 2013
oil on canvas mounted on aluminium panel
150 x 120 cm / 59.1 x 47.2 in
Eoin Mc Hugh
overdetermination, 2013
oil on canvas mounted on aluminium panel
76 x 57 cm / 29.9 x 22.4 in
Eoin Mc Hugh
the ground itself is kind, black butter, 2014
black sheepskin, wax, steel and mixed media
224 x 122 x 190 cm / 88.2 x 48 x 74.8 in
Collection of The Tia Collection, Santa Fe
Eoin Mc Hugh
gentle joy, laughter at the trials of the innocents, 2013
taxidermied hedgehog, book, bell, bronze, glass, table
122 x 90 x 144 cm / 48 x 35.4 x 56.7 in
Eoin Mc Hugh
pulse, thirst, rain inside, 2013
oil on canvas mounted on aluminium panel
36.5 x 31.5 cm / 14.4 x 12.4 in
Eoin Mc Hugh
fruit, thing without parts, 2013
oil on canvas mounted on aluminium
47 x 35 cm / 18.5 x 13.8 in
Eoin Mc Hugh
Detail, 2011
oil on canvas mounted on aluminium panel
45 x 40 cm / 17.7 x 15.7 in
Eoin McHugh
Schnitt Schnitt, 2016
Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Eoin McHugh
Eoin McHugh, 2016
Gallery 2, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Eoin McHugh
Augury, 2013
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Eoin McHugh
Urpflanze, 2012
TR1 Kunsthalle, Tampere, Finland
Eoin McHugh
Centre d’art Contemporain, 2018
Chateau des Adhemar, Montelimar, France
Eoin McHugh
Rendez Vous, 2007
École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon, in collaboration with the Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France
THING'S SCREEN #1: Intro/ Eoin Mc Hugh's *Augury*
