Kez Hughes
Focusing on historical and contemporary Art, Kez Hughes makes art about art, realist paintings that document exhibitions, sculptures, and paintings. These paintings of paintings, sculptures or installations elaborate on issues of authenticity, subjectivity and cultural and social economies.
Melbourne based painter Kez Hughes has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts, and has held solo exhibitions since 2006 in Melbourne. She has been exhibited in group exhibitions since 2004 in Melbourne, Brisbane, Ballarat and Gippsland and internationally in Sri Lanka at art spaces including Margaret Lawrence Gallery at the Victorian College of the Arts, the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Ballarat Art Gallery, Bendigo Art Gallery, Federation University, RMIT School of Art, Schoolhouse Studios and BUS Projects. Hughes is a recipient of the 2006 Roger Kemp Memorial Award at the Victorian College of the Arts and the 2016 APEX Art Fellowship, New York. She has been a finalist in the 2023 Sir John Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the 2019 and 2017 Arthur Guy Memorial Prize at Bendigo Art Gallery, the 2019 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize at Bayside Art Gallery and the 2009 Williamstown Art Prize.
EDUCATION
2005 Bachelor of Fine Art, HONOURS, Victorian College of the Arts
2004 Bachelor of Fine Art, Painting, Victorian College of the Arts
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Translations, Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Collingwood, Melbourne
2023 You Never Got Me Right, Stockroom Kyneton, Victoria.
2020 Portraits, LON Gallery, Collingwood, Melbourne
2017 Spaghetti Western, C3 Abbotsford Convent
2013 The Full Picture, Chapter House Lane, Melbourne.
2012 Best Of, Westspace Melbourne.
2010 The Critic Smiles with David Coles, Rearview, Melbourne.
2009 Love the way you make art, BUS Projects Melbourne.
2009 Don’t Let Go,Third Drawer Down, Melbourne.
2008 World Tokenism,TCB Inc. Melbourne.
2007 Cover Versions, Westspace, Melbourne.
2006 Paintings of Exhibitions I went to, TCB Inc. Melbourne.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Bayside Art Prize, Brighton Melbourne
2023 Renditions, Project 8, Melbourne,
2023 John Sulman Prize - finalist, Art Gallery NSW, Sydney
2019 Fidelities, Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne.
2019 Snake Charmer, Lon Gallery, Collingwood.
2019 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, Bayside City Council.
2018 Still Life Part 1, Curated by Adam Stone, Irene Rose, Brunswick
2017 Mirrors II, with John R Neeson, Glasshouse Lane Collingwood
2017 Arthur Guy Memorial Prize, Bendigo Regional Gallery
2017 On Hubris, Irony and Schadenfreude, LON Gallery
2016 Double Agent, Schoolhouse Studios, Melbourne.
2016 Mirrors 1, with John R Neeson, BUS Projects, Melbourne.
2016 Caves Offsite, Switchback Gallery Federation University, Churchill, Gippsland.
2013 The Knock Off Show, SLOPES, Melbourne
2012 Objectives, Curated by John R Neeson,Techno Park Studios,Williamstown
2011 Metro Art Award, Metro Art Gallery, Malvern.
2010 Network, Ballarat Regional Gallery,Victoria.
2010 Club house, DAMP, 6th Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery.
2010 Operal Vacancy, Rearview, Melbourne.
2009 Williamstown Art Prize,The Substation, Newport.
2008 Techno Park, Opening Exhibition,Williamstown.
2006 Curry Side of the Moon. Barefoot Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2005 Graduate Exhibition,VCA, Melbourne.
2004 Graduate Exhibition,VCA, Melbourne.
2004 The Wallara Travelling Scholarship, Margaret Lawrence Gallery,VCA, Melbourne.
CURATORIAL
2015 - 2019 C A V E S, Room 18, Level 6, 37 Swanston Street, Melbourne.
2013 Man of my Dreams,Techno Park, Williamstown.
AWARDS
2016 APEX ART Fellowship, New York.
2006 Roger Kemp Memorial Award.VCA