Hugo McCloud

Hugo McCloud is a multi-dimensional artist who utilizes an alchemical approach to transmute untraditional materials into beautifully crafted pieces of art. His work questions the boundaries of aesthetic beauty, by coaxing out unique imagery from materials that would otherwise be deemed ugly, unusable or discarded. The artist incorporates a chemical oxidation process that corrodes, contaminates and transforms, enabling his work to amass a visually arresting oeuvre of paintings and objects.
A self- taught artist, McCloud sources many of his tools and materials from ordinary items used in construction. Such materials include copper sheets, wire clothes, tar-paper, as well as other discarded construction based materials, which are traditionally overlooked as usable materials. McCloud’s design and construction background, combined with his urban architectural influences of squatter camps, shanties, barrios and natural decay, has helped to create his own distinct and unique artistic vocabulary.
Hugo relates the transformation of the materials in his work, to the journey of human evolution and the ever-enduring quest for self-enlightenment. He believes his art is a representation of the symbiotic relationship between the materials, textures, colors, and the viewer. Turning the ordinary into visual spectical. We accept the natural cyclical process of production and decay. A seed is planted, a flower blooms, and shrivels back into the earth. There is an idea of the flower being the most beautiful part of the plant, the rest forgotten and discarded. McCloud directs his focus to the scraps, the decomposing, the un-developed. McCloud believes by making use of recovered resources, which are usually out of their prime or in unusable shape, he allows these materials to spark a dynamic dialogue between the viewers and objects.