May 9

Yemming Charles Hugues

Yemming Charles Hugues is an emerging artist who focuses primarily on contemporary figure and portrait painting. His exhibition resume starts in 2021 and he has exhibited in several shows in African and South American countries including Cameroon, Nigeria, Brazil, and Argentina. Yemming received a prize of distinction regarding best pictorial work in the Connecting Borders exhibit in Cameroon. His paintings convey contemporary symbolism along with backgrounds of abstracted forms interacting with his representational portrayals of figures.

Some of the paintings use social media emojis and icons one would find on their mobile phone strategically and compositionally placed around his subject. Other paintings convey pop art tendencies with blocked off forms of shadow and light and containing hallucinogenic abstract backgrounds portraying a lava lamp-like appearance. The paintings remain flat and the compositions depict figures just slightly off center with a combination of geometric and organic shapes flowing in the background.

Peindre signifie penser avec son pinceau (pictured above) portrays a hair stylist (or perhaps a friend) fashioning the hair of a subject in the foreground portrayed in cerulean blue. The women wear beach-like attire indicating a summer season or perhaps an indication the figures are on their way to shore. The color on the stylist appears nowhere on the composition while the figure in the foreground has the lemon yellow on her skirt repeated in the background and blue tone reflected in the drinking water to the left of her. A fascinating approach to depicting warmth followed by a balance of strategically placed cool tones for balance.

L’apparence (pictured above) portrays a woman with abstracted pink and black tones converging on her face with hints of flowers emanating from her hair which seeps into the air, the background, and her blouse. The dance of florals varies from patterns to representational displays. With her dated hair style and attire she portrays a figure from the past or a figure wishing to embrace nostalgia. LL’apparence remains a cleverly designed and bold painting of luminosity.

Although Yemming Charles Hugues currently has a small portfolio and much of his body of work not contained in the article requires further development, he remains an exciting artist who conveys current sociological trends through icons, symbolism, and contemporary mass production values similar to pop art. With experience, Yemming as an emerging and young artist will grow to convey relevant social values in contemporary painting and he will build upon innovative contributions to the purpose of image-making in contemporary society.