Art and Art History

Dewane Hughes

Dewane Hughes

Title: Professor of Studio Art, Studio Art Graduate Program Advisor
Department: Art and Art History
Building: ARC 127
Email: dhughes@uttyler.edu
Phone: 903.565.5510

Degrees

  • Graduated from Ames Iowa in 1969.
  • M.F.A., Montana State University
  • Area: Sculpture, Design, Jewelry & Small Metals

Biography

 

Hughes is Distinguished Professor of Art at the University of Texas at Tyler where he teaches all levels of sculpture, jewelry and small metals.  He received his B.A. with a double major in sculpture, and philosophy and religion from Buena Vista University in 1992 and his M.F.A. in sculpture from Montana State University in 1996, during which he was awarded the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement Award. Hughes has an extensive exhibition record that includes shows at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Japan, the Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University, and the International Museum of Arts and Science in McAllen, Texas. After serving as Texas Sculpture Group President from 2014-2017, Hughes is now President Emeritus of this International Sculpture Center Charter and serves on the board of the group. Hughes recently completed a summer residency in 2022 at the Buffalo Creek Art Center in Gardnerville, Nevada where two of his large-scale sculptures are now part of the permanent outdoor sculpture collection. Hughes’ sculptures can be found in many private and public art collections around the nation, including the renown “Hardy Family Art Collection” at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Pennsylvania, the Estancia Estates in Austin, Texas and the City of Boerne, Texas. Hughes is currently represented by the Rebecca Low Gallery in Fort Worth, Texas and was their featured artist for March 2023. For more information visit www.dewanehughesart.com.

Research Statement
My work has always dealt with language. Influenced heavily by the poets of the Beat Generation, as well as subsequent linguistic scholars such as Noam Chomsky and Marshall McLuhan, I create a formal reality that speaks to the essence of communication. It is my contention that all “art” happens in the space between the object and the viewer, and it is from this perspective that I create sculpture to be a manifestation of the space between language and understanding. McLuhan teaches that the method of delivery is as important as the message which is delivered, and it is this concept which directs my creative decisions, such as material choice, compositional considerations, and so on. My creative impetus is closely akin to the raw and visceral perspective of writers like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Herbert Huncke, and Allen Ginsberg—this generation used linguistic skill to touch the heart of what was real to them, creating a new lexicon and slang, and the awareness of this attitude heavily influences my creative process to this day.

Dewane Hughes Personal Website

Curriculum Vitae Dewane Hughes