Born in Palo Alto California in 1980, Hugo McCloud is one of the most prolific artists working today. McCloud’s work has quickly evolved through a process of restless experimentation, bringing inventiveness and fearlessness to the act of making. The artist is engaged in an ongoing quest to elevate and master diverse methodologies and the array of subjects his work addresses. An abiding, unifying theme is Hugo’s preoccupation with finding beauty in the everyday.

Self-taught with a background in industrial design, McCloud’s practice is unrestricted by classical, academic tenets. He has gravitated toward materials that could be considered abject – roofing materials, solder, and presently, single-use plastic bags. Drawing inspiration from the rawness of the urban landscape, McCloud creates rich, large-scale abstract paintings and by fusing unconventional industrial materials with traditional pigment and woodblock printing techniques. McCloud’s newest body of figural work touches on notions of class, particularly through his use of plastic bags. His investigation into plastic began after traveling to India and seeing multi-color polypropylene plastic sacks everywhere. Observing the downcycle of these bags from their creation to the companies that purchased them for the distribution of products, to the trash pickers in Dharavi slums, McCloud saw how this ubiquitous material passed through the hands of individuals at every level of society.

These representational works address issues concerning the economics of labor, geopolitics and the environmental impact of plastic. McCloud continues his practice of incorporating industrial materials using plastic as a tool to better understand our similarities and differences as a human race; to connect to our environment; and to contribute to reversing the negative impact of our carbon footprint.

McCloud has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Fenix Museum in The Netherlands, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, The Arts Club, London and Fondazione 107, in Turin, Italy. He has also been featured in group exhibitions at the Nasher Museum at Duke University, the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the Brooklyn Museum, New York, the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and The Drawing Center, New York. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Brooklyn Museum; the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York; the Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York; the Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art; The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami; the Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, Michigan; the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, Florida; the Hort Family Collection, New York; The Joyner Giuffrida Collection of Abstract Art, San Francisco; and The UBS Collection, New York.

Hugo McCloud lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Tulum, Mexico.