NEWSLETTER
Rochester, NY (September 1, 2026) —The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester (MAG) is pleased to present Hugo McCloud: to everything there is a season, the largest museum solo exhibition of work by acclaimed contemporary artist Hugo McCloud, on view September 26, 2026, through January 3, 2027. The exhibition features more than twenty-five paintings created between 2020 and 2026, including several new works making their public debut, and offers visitors a window into the ongoing evolution of McCloud’s inventive artistic practice.
Celebrated for his paintings covering a wide range of subjects including labor, nature, and still lifes, McCloud explores the people and places that shape everyday life using unconventional materials such as aluminum foil and tar paper, and hundreds of pieces of single-use plastic bags the artist has sourced, hand-cut, and ironed into place. Among the several bodies of work highlighted, the heart of the exhibition is McCloud’s ongoing Burdened Man series, which presents scenes of men whose daily work requires repetitive, physical labor. Overall, to everything there is a season invites an examination of brief glimpses of daily life in locations such as Los Angeles, Morocco, India, and Spain.
“Hugo McCloud has inventively expanded the field of contemporary painting through his restless experimentations using unorthodox materials,” says Timothy Peterson, Ann and Irving Norry Curator of Contemporary Art. “Equally important is his focus on the interconnected layers of global economies and reuse of materials, which resonate locally and internationally.”
About the artist
McCloud has presented 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. His paintings have 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 also 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 Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, and Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York.
Plan a visit to the Memorial Art Gallery
Hugo McCloud: to everything there is a season will be on view at the Memorial Art Gallery September 26, 2026, through January 3, 2027. This exhibition offers Rochester audiences and visitors from around the region the opportunity to explore McCloud’s evolving body of work and experience the distinctive artistic vision of one of today’s most compelling contemporary artists.
More information about the exhibition can be found here.
Support for this exhibition is provided by: Lead Sponsor: Walter B. D. Hickey, Jr. Supporting Sponsors: Brian F. Prince, Rubens Family Foundation. Associate Sponsors: Anonymous, Dale and Joe Klein, Sharon and Robert Napier, and Marion Swett Robinson. Contributing Sponsors: Anonymous, Jeffery Daneilson, Laura L. Fulton and Martin P. Zemel, Lewis Norry Family, and George and Barbara Segel. Fellow Sponsors: Judith and Lawrence Ricotta. Memorial Art Gallery Endowed Fund Support: Dr. Robert Lewis Berg and Florence Foster Berg Fund, Langdon and Ellen Clay Endowment, Margaret Davis Friedlich and Alan and Sylvia Davis Memorial Fund – MAG, Robert A. and Maureen S. Dobies Endowment Fund, Joan Feinbloom Grand Gallery Endowed Fund, Suressa H Forbes Endowment, Irving and Essie Germanow Fund, Grant Holcomb Endowment, Kayser Fund, Elizabeth and Eric Rennert Family Fund, Susan E. Schilling Book Fund, Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Fund, and the Nancy R. Turner Endowment for Temporary Exhibitions.
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About the Memorial Art Gallery
The Memorial Art Gallery showcases art from antiquity to the present day, including the outdoor public Centennial Sculpture Park. In addition to its permanent collection, MAG offers a year-round schedule of special exhibitions, lectures, concerts, tours, after-hours social events, and family activities. Learn more at mag.rochester.edu
Image: Hugo McCloud, dhobi, 2024. Single-use plastic mounted on panel, 72 x 108 inches. © Hugo McCloud, Courtesy: the artist and Sean Kelly, New York.