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