Sara Hughes’ paintings and architecturally scaled installations draw on the tradition of hard edge abstraction, reinterpreting its mode and method through contemporary culture and image making. Hughes’ candy-coloured compositions pulse with the heightened intensity of commercial graphics and display a continuing interest in optical perception. Utilising precise geometric arrangements to reference information technologies, computer viruses and assorted electronic communication systems, she explores the role that code and patterns play in the way we interpret and navigate the world in the digital age. 

Select solo exhibitions: Today, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 2023; 23 Hours and 56 Minutes, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2022; Fergusson, Whirinaki Whare Taonga, Wellington, 2021; All My Favourite Shapes, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, 2019; Willow, Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga, 2017; Everything Goes, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2016; Sing a Rainbow Too, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2015; Sing a Rainbow, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 2014; The Golden Grain, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, 2011; For Kultur, Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery, Napier, 2010; Heat Wave, Federation Square, Melbourne, 2010; Feedback Runaway, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2009; Flower House, Te Manawa Art Gallery, Palmerston North, 2007.

Select group exhibitions: Generation X: 50 Artworks from the Chartwell Collection, City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, Wellington, 2024; Collective Visions: New & Recent Works by Represented Artists, Gow Langsford, Auckland, 2024; Out of the ordinary, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2017; Grid/Colour/Plane, Malcolm Smith Gallery, Howick, 2017; Undreamed of…50 Years of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, 2016; Making Sense, Whakatane Museum, Whakatane, 2015; As Many Structures As I Can, New Dowse Museum, Lower Hutt, 2013; Flight, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2012; Peaking the Edge, Plus Gallery, Denver, 2011; Business and Pleasure 2, ISCP, New York, 2007.