Adriene Hughes is a San Diego based fine art photographer with an MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Tufts University. She is a multi-media artist whose current body of work is based within the genre of grand landscape and the effects of global warming on the environment through the use of infrared technology, photography, and embroidery.
The process of making, from spending time in and with the landscape as well as the photographing of it, has been a healing experience for Hughes, whose practice has been massively shaped by her survival of cancer. Since then, her artistic process has evolved towards a singular obsession to the photographic landscape.
Environments that are struggling to survive, from the icebergs in the Arctic to the desert of California, have particularly resonated with the artist. Hughes uses embroidery to honour phenomena that is invisible to the human eye.
Hughes' photography has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including video installation at Venice Biennial at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, and the Lishui International Photo Festival, China. Recent exhibitions include Klompching Gallery, New York, Centro Cultural (CECUT) Tijuana, Mexico, California Center for the Arts, The Center for Fine Arts Photography at Ft. Collins, San Diego Arts Institute, Sawtooth ARI Tasmania, Microwave International New Media Festival Hong Kong, and Simultan Festival Romania. Her photographs have been featured in many publications including Wired, Harper's Magazine, PDN, Phroom Magazine, German Foto, Humble Arts Foundation, Don't Take Pictures, Lenscratch, PhotoPhore, FeatureShoot, and Crusade For Art. Hughes is also the recipient of the 2018 Rhonda Wilson Award with Klompching Gallery, a 2018 Critical Mass Top 50 recipient, and 2020 Critical Mass finalist. Public art includes San Diego International Airport and the Boston Convention Centre. She has recently installed a 144 foot large-scale photographic mural project at the San Diego International Airport, as well as an environmental infrared video installation of the Southern California desert landscape.