Owen McHugh and Abstraction in the Permanent Collection

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art is delighted to announce Owen McHugh and Abstraction in the Permanent Collection. This exhibition highlights abstract, non-representational works in UIMA’s Permanent Collection alongside Owen McHugh’s most recent works from 2017 to the present. Artists exhibiting from the Permanent Collection include Corey Postiglione, Kathie Shaw, John Hoyland, Alexander Hunenko, Martin Hurtig, Lida Petruniak-Colucci, Michael Mandziuk, Irma Osadsa, William Pura, David Samila and Jerzy Nowosielski.

Owen McHugh is a local Chicago Artist deeply rooted in Abstraction throughout his career. He maintained his M.F.A from Northern Illinois University, and he taught Two-Dimensional Design as well as painting and drawing courses at Columbia College Chicago for over forty years. His work is in many permanent collections including the National Museum of American Art, State of Illinois Collection, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL.

While many abstract artists gravitate to working within one stylistic approach in abstraction, geometric or gestural, McHugh attempts to bridge the two together. This ambiguous configuration of conflict, becomes a metaphor of existence for McHugh. In his most recent years, McHugh developed his own personal process in which he began an arrangement of organic forms that then underwent a transfiguration through repeated overlays and spattering, modifying coloration and organic shapes in his beginning formations.

Image: John Hoyland, New York Suite (Light Blue on Gray on Orange on Green), 1971, Screenprint on paper, 40.5 x 28.125 inches, Gift of Dr. Pellayo and Mrs. Carolina Cabrera