By Dirk Langeveld

RIDGEFIELD — An eye-catching and colorful new outdoor sculpture at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is inviting visitors to be optimistic in the face of the many challenges facing the world.

“Portal: Hope as Practice” will be on view through October 2026. The piece is the first public art sculpture from New Haven-based artist Kristy Hughes, and her largest work to date.

The sculpture is part of Hughes’ ongoing work of using portals and circles in her work, and is the latest in the Aldrich’s Main Street Sculpture program. It also offers a glimpse into a future exhibition planned at the museum to highlight new Connecticut artists.

A beacon for the museum

Since 2004, the Main Street Sculpture program has been helping to make people aware of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. The museum is now set back from the street, with the original building now housing its administrative offices. Each year, a new sculpture is placed near this building to help people get an initial sense of what they can encounter.

Amy Smith-Stewart, Diana Bowes Chief Curator at the museum, invited Hughes to create this piece of public art after meeting her at the NXTHVN artist residency in New Haven. She organized “Portal” with Caitlin Monachino, the Aldrich’s Curatorial and Publications Manager.

“I was really inspired by [Hughes’] use of color as a way to explore joy,” said Smith-Stewart. “She was also talking about how she was looking for a way to get into public art.”

Featuring two multicolored rings that meet at the center, the sculpture is over 10 feet tall. Like Hughes’ other sculptures, it seeks to “reclaim agency, visibility, and joy,” with emphasis on turning materials and gestures into acts of recovery and the possibility of renewal.

While Hughes typically welds her own stainless steel armatures, she worked with a fabricator for the larger piece. The sculpture also incorporates fiberglass, insulation board, acrylic, and epoxy resin. 

Like her smaller sculptures, “Portal” includes nooks where Hughes hides objects of special significance, including notes of gratitude to people who have influenced her work, gifts from friends, and objects collected during her travels. Concealed within the piece is writing from Adrienne Rich, Susan Sontag, Adrienne Maree Brown, Tracy Fuad, Janan Alexandra, Mariame Kaba, Ross Gay, and Octavia E. Butler.

Smith-Stewart said this incorporation of multiple creative voices is a unique and appealing aspect of sculpture. 

“They are very charismatic and they are abstractions, but these are also about collective or collaborative agency. And I think that’s what makes it such generous work,” she said. “Hopefully people who encounter her work feel that power and that joy.”

“A reminder of hope”

Hughes says “Portal” is an expansion of her existing themes of opportunity, change, and a shifting of perspective. She said that when she was invited to create the outdoor sculpture, she had these ideas in mind as well.

“It’s really easy to get upset about a lot of things that are happening in the world, in the country, et cetera,” said Hughes. “A reminder of hope is what I was thinking of when I was making the piece.”

Hughes said she typically works in the same materials included in “Portal,” but on a smaller scale. Her other works usually feature paper that she pulps herself, but substitutes were made to account for the need to have the outdoor sculpture stand up to the elements.

Speaking about her relationship with The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Hughes said she was grateful for the institution’s willingness to work with newer artists. She said that while she often comes up with concepts for larger sculptures, the museum’s invitation gave her the impetus and opportunity to carry out the plan.

“It’s so lovely to be in conversation with people who love artists and are really curious about what you’re making and why,” she said.

Hughes has been an artist fellow at art institutions throughout New England and New York, as well as one in Georgia. Her art has been exhibited at the James Cohan Gallery in New York; Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.; and The Sculpture Center in Cleveland. Hughes has also been a visiting artist at several universities as well as a lecturer at the University of Vermont and a visiting assistant professor at Indiana University. 

A sneak peak

Hughes said she is currently working on some new wall relief pieces as well as art incorporating Mobius strips. Building on her theme of circles and portals, Mobius strips are a simple construction that create a never-ending loop. She said these works will explore infinite flow and the idea of how uncomplicated things can become much more significant.

“Portal” also offers a preview of an upcoming show at the The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum that will feature a piece by Hughes. “Aldrich Decennial: I Am What is Around Me,” an exhibition which will take place every 10 years, will focus on the work of local artists who have never before had a museum exhibition.

For more information on “Portal” and Hughes, click here.

Expanded coverage of Fairfield County cultural events is made possible with support from the Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts.