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Hugh Steers

Day Light

January 8–February 14, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Hugh Steers: Day Light, installation view, Alexander Gray Associates, 2015

Morning Terrace, 1992, Oil On Canvas

Morning Terrace, 1992

Oil On Canvas

72h x 54w in (182.88h x 137.16w cm)

Blue Uniform, 1991, Oil on canvas

Blue Uniform, 1991

Oil on canvas

66h x 72w in (167.64h x 182.88w cm)

Futon Couch, 1991, Oil on canvas

Futon Couch, 1991

Oil on canvas

56h x 60w in (142.24h x 152.40w cm)

Maroon Shed, 1991, Oil On Canvas

Maroon Shed, 1991

Oil On Canvas

60h x 60w in (152.40h x 152.40w cm)

Raft, 1991, Oil on canvas

Raft, 1991

Oil on canvas

40h x 30.25w in (101.60h x 76.84w cm)

Shadow Box, 1991, Oil On Canvas

Shadow Box, 1991

Oil On Canvas

44h x 30.25w in (111.76h x 76.84w cm)

Telephone Poles, 1991, Oil On Canvas

Telephone Poles, 1991

Oil On Canvas

50h x 44w in (127h x 111.76w cm)

Falling Lamp, 1987, Oil on canvas

Falling Lamp, 1987

Oil on canvas

19.25h x 15.63w in (48.90h x 39.69w cm)

Shadow Box II, 1991, Oil on gessoed paper

Shadow Box II, 1991

Oil on gessoed paper

13h x 11.10w in (33.02h x 28.19w cm)

Study I, 1991, Oil on gessoed paper

Study I, 1991

Oil on gessoed paper

11h x 12.30w in (27.94h x 31.24w cm)

Study II, 1991, Oil on gessoed paper

Study II, 1991

Oil on gessoed paper

13.30h x 11.10w in (33.78h x 28.19w cm)

Purple Rug, 1990, Oil on gessoed paper

Purple Rug, 1990

Oil on gessoed paper

11.20h x 13.40w in (28.45h x 34.04w cm)

French Doors, 1988, Oil on gessoed paper

French Doors, 1988

Oil on gessoed paper

15.20h x 11.10w in (38.61h x 28.19w cm)

Brown Couch, 1992, Oil on gessoed paper

Brown Couch, 1992

Oil on gessoed paper

12.80h x 11w in (32.51h x 27.94w cm)

Press Release

Alexander Gray Associates presented an exhibition of work by Hugh Steers (b.1962, Washington, DC – 1995, New York), including paintings and works on paper produced between 1990 and 1992 that exemplify Steers’ virtuous use of light and color to render allegorical and humanist images. The featured works illustrated his creative process of working through ideas and formal concerns by generating expressionistic oil on paper sketches before painting larger compositions on canvas. The exhibition positioned Steers’ residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the summer of 1991, as a turning point in the artist’s practice. Through the 1980s, Steers painted interior scenes as he gradually developed an aesthetic characterized by vivid colors. While at Skowhegan, he turned toward outdoor landscapes, brightening his color palette and emphasizing the presence of natural light. The works on exhibit reveal Steers’ ability to render light through color, often suffusing his scenes with the confluence of both natural and artificial light references and resulting in visually powerful scenes imbedded with a heightened intimacy.

Hugh Steers’ understanding of color and light, and his ability to express a wide range of emotions through figuration, reveal 
his deep knowledge of and direct influences from Art History. The contrasting lighting and glow of his work often reference Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, his elongated and sharp figures are informed by El Greco, his intimate imagery and unorthodox poses point to Pierre Bonnard and Edgar Degas, and his figurative compositions speak to Edward Hopper. Grounded in technique and the history of Western painting, he described his work as “allegorical realism” designed “to draw 
the viewer in through the lure of a comfortingly recognizable style and then confront him with a subject matter of a 
challenging nature.” 

Primarily depicting isolated solitary figures or couples, Steers presents the viewer with ambiguous and disconcerting scenes, suggesting, but not fully defining narrative content. In Telephone Poles (1991), created at Skowhegan, the plunging perspective of a simultaneously bright and shadowed bucolic landscape centers on a lone male figure with a bag over his head, dwarfed by skewed and looming telephone poles. Diagnosed in 1987 with HIV, Steers’ subject matter often speaks to the experience of living through an evolving Queer identity and the devastating AIDS crisis. Much of his work addressed illness, isolation, alienation, companionship, and sexuality, as embodied in Maroon Shed (1991), also done during the summer Residency. While he described his images as “metaphors that come from very specific needs and things on my part,” he repeatedly insisted that the meanings of his paintings depended on what the viewer brings to them. For Steers, his work powerfully embodies the clash between mass culture and personal instinct.