HUGH ARNOLD
B. 1956
British
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hugh Arnold’s photographs resemble classical paintings. Creatively, he draws from a compendium of sources: Michelangelo’s frescos, the Baroque compositions of Peter Paul Rubens, Rodin’s writhing bronze figures, and Gustave Dore’s ominous, symbolist creations. In examining his underwater series, it’s easy to forget that Arnold’s subjects are not angels in flight. Suspended in space, every gesture appears effortless. The way an arm flexes when it is reaching for something or the luxuriating arch of a woman’s back as she stretches. But, underwater, every motion is an act of resistance; Arnold’s actors push, caress, and careen. They fight and embrace. Each image, a mini-drama unto itself.
Rodin once wrote, “I invent nothing, I rediscover,” and, in a way, this series does feel like a rediscovery. Wielding archetypal symbol sets, Hugh Arnold’s photographs draw an unmistakable lineage between primordial history and the present, creating narrative dreamscapes that seem to surface from forgotten memories. Excavating his own experiences alongside this idea of a collective past, Arnold’s work is at once autobiographical and universal. Agua Nacida (water birth) represents the beginning, the nascent stages, the womb. Agua Vida (water life): experience, conflict. Agua Profunda (deep water): the subconscious, the unknown, and what is to come.
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Hugh Arnold: Agua Vida, Space Gallery St Barth, Gustavia, St. Barthélemy
2018 Agua Vida, Hilton Asmus Contemporary, Chicago, IL
2015 Hugh Arnold, Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
2015 Hugh Arnold: Agua Nacida, Mead Carney Fine Art, Tivat, Montenegro
2015 Hugh Arnold: Agua Nacida, Grace Belgravia, London, United Kingdom
2014 Agua Nacida, Hilton Asmus Contemporary, Chicago, IL
Group Exhibitions
2018 Black Book Presents, Black Book, Brooklyn, NY
2018 St Barth in the City, Space Gallery St Barth, New York City, NY
2018Flesh as Fantasy, A. Galerie, Paris, France
2017 History of the Chess Queen (Or the Advent of Feminine Power), Hilton Asmus Contemporary, Chicago, IL
2017 Davide Campi Gallery, Ibiza, Spain
2015 Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
Press & Publications
2019 Hugh Arnold at Space Gallery this winter, Pola St Barthélemy, 30 December 2019
Hugh Arnold at Space Gallery, Weekly St Barth, 28 December 2019
2016 Arnold, Hugh with a foreword by Arica Hilton. Hugh Arnold: Agua Vida. Chicago: Hilton Asmus, 2016.
2015 Hugh Arnold and his aquatic artistry, Haute Living, 29 April 2015
Underwater Beauty: A Story, The Chic, 29 March 2015
First London exhibition of works by Hugh Arnold opens at Mead Carney, ArtDaily, 15 January 2015
Hugh Arnold: Agua Nacida, Mead Carney Fine Art, London, Aesthetica Magazine, 14 January 2015
First Solo Exhibition of Hugh Arnold in London Opens at Mead Carney, Art Fix Daily, 08 January 2015
2014 Hugh Arnold. Agua Nacida, Wall Street International Magazine, 17 December 2014
Arnold, Hugh with a foreword by Stella Thomas. Agua Nacida: Water Born. London: Merrell, 2014.