Opening | Des Hughes - SECOND SLEEP

Name: Opening | Des Hughes - SECOND SLEEP
Start: 2025-04-04T16:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-04-04T19:00:00+02:00
Location: Bredgade 23, 1260 Copenhagen, Denmark

Schedule

Fri Apr 04 2025 at 04:00 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

Bredgade 23, 1260 Copenhagen, Denmark | Copenhagen , SK

OPENING
FRIDAY, APRIL 4 at 16:00-19:00
Martin Asbæk Gallery is proud to present SECOND SLEEP, a new solo show by British visual artist Des Hughes. The artist’s work is perhaps best described as circumstantial, informed by material, chance encounters and observations, and characterised by a humorous approach.
Hughes avoids defining himself as a painter or sculptor and could instead be seen as someone who collects, fractures, and fuses fragments together, rethinking conventional methods and retelling what art can be. This freedom is reflected in the variety of materials and processes he uses, including cross-stitch, bronze, wood and plaster.
Hughes’ practise begins in the studio, though where that studio might be, or in what form, is not fully determined nor static. Makeshift and temporary, his studio functions as an empty box, and Hughes embraces spaces that rid him of the responsibilities and pressures that more formal spaces can impose over time. He consolidates his art practice by doing what he wants each day, free from expectations and predetermined aesthetic or outcome.
Fascinated with the material world of objects and the every day, the work is an amalgamation of the environment that the artist encounters. But nothing is as it seems: wooden stools and stepladders deceive us as they turn out to be cast in bronze, while a large, jelly dessert set on the floor is made of resin. Des Hughes’ Second Sleep is a re-imagining of an earlier work, titled Empty House, which was a reminder of his first and most productive studio. Hughes has revisited this space to create what he describes as a ghost version, made of colourless aluminium. The title is a reference to the ancient practise of double sleeping widely practised throughout the preindustrial world. The period of wakefulness between first and second sleep was often known as ‘the watch’ – a useful window of time to be used productively and get to work.
Des Hughes (b. 1970 in Birmingham) completed an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, London in 2002, following a BA in Fine Art at Bath College of Art in 1994. Hughes’ has exhibited in many institutions including Nottingham Contemporary, Manchester Art Gallery, The Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green and The Hepworth Wakefield, and his work is held in major collections including Arts Council Collection, The Hepworth, Wakefield, The David and Indre Roberts Collection and Manchester Art Gallery. He lives and works in Herefordshire.