TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN.- The Michael and Barbara Dennos Museum Center presents Patrick Hughes: Perverspective, through March 27, 2005. Patrick Hughes: Perverspective is a mini-retrospective on the work of this British surrealist painter. Patrick Hughes creates three dimensional relief paintings that baffle his audience by demonstrating how deceptive appearances can be. As the viewer walks toward the seemingly flat paintings they loom out at the viewer, creating a disorientating, 'moving' experience.

Hughes paints on panels that protrude out of the picture plane in pyramids and trapezoids into the viewer’s space. He places the shadows and angles of his walls, streets, landscapes and corridors so that as one walks by, the whole piece appears to move. The only way to truly experience this is for the viewer to see the works in person, as one’s movement brings the work to life. Preconceived assumptions of the eye and brain are challenged, inevitably raising questions about our perception and subconscious.

Born in Birmingham, England in 1939, Patrick Hughes lives and works in London. Pieces from throughout his career are in many public collections including the British Library, London; the Tate Gallery, London; the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; the Denver Art Museum and the Duke University Art Museum. A major painting was included in The Collections of Nesuhi Ertegun and Daniel Filipacchi, the 1999 Surrealist exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. In 2000 Hughes had a solo exhibition at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and through 2001-2004 he has had solo shows in London, Seoul, Los Angeles and New York City. He has lectured and written widely on the art and science of perception and cognition.