Steve Turner is pleased to present Don’t Cry Because It Happened, Smile Because It’s Over, a solo exhibition by London-based Ariane Hughes that features a series of paintings that relate to emotional upheaval and the path to personal empowerment. Hughes uses her prodigious painting skills to depict hyper-real images that are at once absurd, menacing and humorous as well as sexy and grotesque. Inspired by experience and close observation, they more broadly relate to the selfie generation where personal relationships often commence on one’s iphone yet end in tears.

Ariane Hughes graduated from Camberwell College (2019), had a solo exhibition at GNYP, Berlin (2022) and has had work in numerous group exhibitions since 2019, most recently at Guts Gallery, London (2023). This is Hughes’ first solo exhibition with Steve Turner.