Manuel Hughes, known to his friends as “Manny”, was born in St Louis, Missouri. At the tender age of 8, Hughes enrolled himself in the People’s Art Center.  Established in 1942, it was the city’s first racially integrated community art center, operating at a time when most of St. Louis’s cultural and civic institutions remained segregated. The center offered free or inexpensive instruction in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry making, and other crafts. It also organized lectures, gallery talks, and exhibitions by students and established artists.

He eventually studied at the University of Missouri (BFA, MFA), and was initially an abstract artist, but turned to realism.  He is best known for his realist still-life paintings of objects he has found and purchased at flea markets in New York and Paris.

From the artist’s bio on manuelhughes.com:

For over 30 years, Manuel Hughes has focused on painting household objects, which he has collected over the years.  He focuses on the details of the objects and the formal relationships between the pieces in each arrangement.  From draped fabrics to antique cans, toys, instruments, and boxes, his straightforward portrayal of ordinary and mundane items set against a nondescript background asks the viewer to share in the pleasure he takes in each quirky and unique form.