Hugo McCloud
1980 Born in Palo Alto, California
Lives and works in Brooklyn, USA
Self-taught with a background in industrial design, Hugo McCloud’s practice is unrestricted by classical, academic tenets. Drawing inspiration from the rawness and decay of the urban landscape, McCloud creates rich, large-scale abstract paintings and sculptural objects by fusing unconventional industrial materials—tar, bitumen, aluminum sheeting and oxidized steel plates —with traditional pigment and woodblock printing techniques. His approach is instinctive and physical, often working on the floor, sanding, hammering and torching his materials until a total metamorphosis takes place. Driven by an enduring desire to uncover beauty in the overlooked and abandoned, McCloud’s work pushes the boundaries of utilitarian materials and confronts aesthetic perceptions.
CV
McCloud completed studies at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, USA in 2002.
Selected solo exhibitions include: "Palindrome", Sean Kelly, New York, USA (2014), "Hugo McCloud", Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy (2014) and "Hugo McCloud: Put in Place", Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, New York, USA (2014).
Selected group exhibitions include: "From Pre-History to Post-Everything", Sean Kelly, New York, USA (2014), "De Generation Of Painting", Progetto 107, Turin, Italy (2014), "Pattern Recognition", McCADA, New York, USA (2013), "Ryan Keeley and Hugo McCloud: From the mind of Mateo Mitze", ArtNowNY, New York, USA (2012) and "Young Curators New Ideas IV, Beautiful Refuse: Materiality", Meulensteen Gallery, New York, USA (2012).
Hugo McCloud, Untitled, 2014, Rust metal pigment and liquid tar on paper, 61 x 43 cm, CLOU0003