Atlanta Artworks on Display

A reverspective does not move. That is the first thing to understand. The physical object on the wall is as static as any painting. What moves is the viewer's perception, and the experience.

Hughes was born in Birmingham in 1939 and on the day of his graduation he unveiled Sticking-out Room at London's Portal Gallery — the first reverspective, a three-dimensional relief painting in which the principles of perspective are deliberately inverted. Objects that appear to protrude toward the viewer are in reality the most distant points in the composition. The result is a work that appears to rotate and recede as the viewer moves, even though nothing moves at all. 

Three works from across Hughes's career are on view at Carousel Fine Art's Buckhead Village gallery. Hoppera (2008), the oldest, brings together the atmospheric American interior of Edward Hopper. Canaletto (2024) builds its depth from Venice canal architecture. Book Mark (2024) applies the technique to books and bookshelves, objects whose stacked spines already imply their own spatial logic, which Hughes overturns. Hughes's work is held in the permanent collections of the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Library, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, and the Baker Museum in Florida, among others. He has produced more than 150 solo exhibitions across Europe and the United States. 

New Mr. Brainwash works have just arrived at Carousel Fine Art's Buckhead Village gallery: Balloon Girl (2026) and Car (2026), both straight from the artist's Los Angeles studio.

Thierry Guetta, who works as Mr. Brainwash, came to art the way almost no one does: he spent years filming Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and Space Invader before he ever made work himself. Exit Through the Gift Shop, the 2010 documentary, put him before a global audience. What he makes sits at the point where Pop and street art share the same wall: stenciled figures, bright color, celebrity imagery, text layered over image.

His reach extends well beyond the gallery: album covers for Madonna and Rick Ross, collaborations with Hublot and Marvel, and in 2022 the opening of the Mr. Brainwash Art Museum in Los Angeles, whose ongoing exhibition Enter Through the Museum draws collectors and institutions from across the street art world. Works by Mr. Brainwash are held in private collections across the United States and Europe.