Saint Louis native Terrance Hughes is back in St. Louis this week, curating the show “Jargon” at the Mad Art Gallery. Sharing the four-man show with Alphonzo Solarzano, Miguel Felipe and Jason Faulkner, Hughes’ work debuts with an opening tonight, August 1, at the converted police station, 2727 S. 12th in Soulard.

The works he’s brought along correspond to that which is show, on his website, which is to say, a politically- and socially-charged batch of paintings and drawings that speak to various racial and class concerns.
Hughes’ artist’s statement says, in part: “I feel it is important for blacks to become accountable for their part in helping to shape the images that are portrayed in mainstream American culture. While my work is largely about black identity, the issues that I address are universal. We all strive to define ourselves as more than just our race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. I hope that my work will push individuals to defy definition by origination, as well help change modern stereotypical perspectives that surround black culture.”

We discussed his work yesterday, while he and his associates were busy assembling and hanging their projects in the expansive gallery space, the floor strewn with hammers, lighting gear, hanging wires and a provocative image of Buckwheat.

MTV: What’s your relationship to St. Louis?
Hughes: I was born and raised here. Lived here for 21 years and moved away unsuccessfully a few times. I haven’t lived here in 10 years.

MTV: Give us a sense of the show and how it came together.
Hughes: My godmother knows someone who works here. They went to my site, contacted me and basically offered me the show. I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough pieces, because I heard it was a large space. So they basically allowed me to curate the show. Everyone in the show is a good friend of mine. It’s an excuse for them to come and see my hometown and to have a show together.

MTV: Can you discuss the range of the work in this show?
Hughes: There are two different series going on. The larger series is a Spy vs. Spy theme, with two characters representing two different ideas of blackness. They’re constantly battling one another. The other series I’m doing is basically taking a lot of stereotypical portrayals of black people within movies and television and painting them like a different sort of minstrel, as if played by white people. You’ve got Stymie from the Little Rascals, but the piece is named Tom Cruise. It’s almost like giving it back, this Hollywood portrayal of black people, letting someone else take on those roles.

MTV: Does your work play differently in certain markets?
Hughes: You know, I don’t think about it that much. I kind of do what I do. I’m always surprised that people are receptive to them. I try not to alienate people with them. Try to address issues that are bigger. At the core of it all, it’s about a sense of identity. These happen to be about dealing with my own experiences. Growing up in a place like St. Louis, growing up skating in a town like St. Louis City is not seen as a way to spend your time. As far as how it’s received in different cities, my true frames of references are San Francisco and St. Louis. In San Francisco, I was considered an artists’ artist. I was respected, but not very well-known outside the circle. Don’t know if that’s because of the work itself, I don’t know.

MTV: If your work has a social component, is that what people focus on?
Hughes: They tend to…

MTV: They want to know what’s behind it, rather than technique.
Hughes: I’m still a stickler for technique. I like to see things done very well. I think for most people, their first reaction is that it’s funny. Which is what it’s meant to be, it’s all satire. I don’t want to beat people over the head with the message, because you become too literal, it becomes too easy.

MTV: When you’re at shows, do you expect to talk politics?
Hughes: Well, it’s all tied in together, you can’t think of one without the other. It will trigger that kind of conversation. If I painted pictures of flowers, they’d say “I’m a horticulturalist” and they’d want to talk about flowers. It does get into politics. I don’t get too deep into left-wing, right-wing stuff. That’s not my thing. I consider myself, though leaning liberal, of course. Talking about the work is great. It is about things being than technique. If it was about technique, I’d just paint pictures of people.

MTV: Do you think there’s a civic engagement happening now that you don’t have in an off-Presidential year?
Hughes: Well, yeah. In this Presidential election, you have a black man running with a very good chance of winning, which I honestly never thought I’d see in my lifetime. And you had Hillary running. It’s getting more people involved. Frankly, after so many old white dudes being President, maybe America’s progressing into something else. Young people can get involved and have a chance of getting heard.

MTV: Do you feel your own political consciousness changing over the years?
Hughes: I may’ve become a bit more conservative, because I’m not as naïve as I once was. Not that I’m all that old, I’m just 33. Still a relatively young man, anyway.

MTV: The cliché is that when you’re in your 20s, you’re angrier and when you move into your 30s, there’s a different feel for how you can change things.
Hughes: Right. For me, I felt like I was angrier in my 20s. I really began to assess where I was and where I wanted to get. I tried not to get caught up in the whole machine and feel I have to jump hurdles. There are certain obstacles. But, at some point, you realize you have to play the game. You feel like you’re not being true to yourself at that age, but you don’t know how to make the balance happen when you’re in your 20s. I gave up on feeling that certain things had to happen a long time ago. If you’re to become an artist, you have to develop a thick skin. You can’t pander and you can’t try to please everyone. Maybe some people can, but not me.