Hugh Steers, before his death at 32 from AIDS-related complications, created allegorical images of everyday life that captured the emotional and political tenor of New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Embracing representational painting and figuration at a time when such approaches were deemed unfashionable, his intimate compositions are poignant symbols of life under the spectre of AIDS. 

 

Recent solo exhibitions include More Life: Hugh Steers: Blue Towel, Red Tank, David Zwirner, Paris (FR); Hugh Steers: Strange State of Being, Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY (US); Hugh Steers: The Nullities of Life, Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY (US); Day Light, Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY (US); Hugh Steers, Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY (US); and That Soft Glow of Brutality: The Art of Hugh Steers, Visual AIDS, New York, NY (US). Selected collections include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (US); Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (US); New School for Social Research, New York, NY (US); Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI (US); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (US); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (US) and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (US). In 1989, Steers received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship. A comprehensive monographic catalogue of Steers’ work was published by Visual AIDS in 2015.

 

Hugh Steers participates in the exhibition Close, curated by Russell Tovey, on view March 4 - April 6, 2023. For information about the artist please visit Alexander Gray Associates.