Anatomy of a Success Story: How One Artist Broke Through

Each year in the art world, lesser-known artists percolate into public consciousness — most obviously at auctions like those that recently concluded in New York, which saw prices exceeding estimates for up-and-comers like Jadé Fadojutimi, Lucy Bull and Michaela Yearwood-Dan.

These breakout examples always raise the question: How does an artist go from unknown and struggling to celebrated and successful? How much of it is luck and timing? How much training and talent?

Hugo McCloud, 44, offers a recent case study of one path from obscurity to recognition. In just over a decade, he had gone from fabricating metal fountains in Northern California to this month opening his fifth show at the prestigious Sean Kelly Gallery in New York — where his large pieces have sold for as much as $325,000 — and seeing his work join the collections of major institutions like the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Brooklyn Museum and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

Here is a look at some of his stops along the way.

Eye-catching (Very) Mixed Media

McCloud uses nontraditional materials — roofing tar, plastic bags, metal sheets, solder — drawing inspiration from everyday items as well as his travels to places like India, South Africa, Morocco, Thailand and Tulum, Mexico, where in 2020 he constructed his dream concrete home and studio.

His paintings range from the abstract to the figurative — flowers, laborers, bicycles, pushcarts. Although not overtly political, McCloud’s work has dovetailed with growing concerns about climate change, in particular, the deployment of disposable plastic bags in his paintings.

“I was taken with the physicality of Hugo’s approach,” said Rodney Lubeznik, one of McCloud’s earliest and most enduring collectors. “It was something we could feel as well as see.”