Hugo McCloud was born in 1980 and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

A self-taught, multi-dimensional artist and the owner of AP Café, McCloud not only introduces an innovating technique of chemical oxidation, transforming non-traditional surfaces into canvases, but offers an uncharted perspective of using corrosion to conceive a breathtaking aesthetic, far surpassing beauty while pummeling your visual senses. He is driven to uncover beauty in the overlooked and abandoned.

With a background in industrial design, McCloud’s practice is unrestricted by classical, academic tenets. He draws inspiration from the urban landscape to create 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.

Hugo McCloud discusses his large-scale paintings custom made to fit into the Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld gallery's ornate molding, creating a unique classic-contemporary juxtaposition.

To kick off our new video series in collaboration with Blind Barber, prolific New York-based artist Hugo McCloud sits for a cut with head barber Rob McMillen and tells us about the custom installation he created for Blind Barber's new outpost in our downtown flagship.