Aylsa McHugh is interested in how the recontextualizing and combining of found imagery can lend itself to ambiguous interpretations. Her collage based practice draws from a wide range of influences including architecture, modernism, feminism, sculpture, film and mythology. Playing with anthropomorphism, pareidolia and apophenia McHugh examines the innate tendency of human psychology to find connections, patterns and familiarity. She appropriates images found in magazines and books to create unsettling and elegant juxtapositions, these assemblages are compelling and perverse, disjointed and harmonious, a celebration of the uncanny and strangely beautiful.
Aylsa McHugh lives and works in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. Since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne (2002) she has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Melbourne Now, the National Gallery of Victoria (2023), Numinous, Mary Cherry Contemporary (2023) and Shadowlands, Incinerator Gallery (2021). She has been a finalist in numerous art prizes including The 68th Blake Prize, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, the Acquisitive Print Awards, Geelong Gallery, the Darebin Art Prize, Bundoora Homestead and the Fisher's Ghost Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre. Recent awards include the People's Choice Prize at the Castlemaine Art Museum's Experimental Print Prize (2024) and the Hero Apartment Building Public Art Commission from the City of Melbourne (2020). Her work is held in the collections of The National Gallery of Victoria, ACMI and The City of Melbourne Collection.
I respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live, work and create, the Wurundjeri peoples of the Woi Wurrung language group. I honour their Ancestors, Elders and next generations of community. I also extend my respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous sovereignty has never been ceded.
All enquiries: aylsacmchugh@gmail.com
Instagram: @aylsa_mchugh
All works ©Aylsa McHugh