Sean Kelly is pleased to announce Palindrome, an exhibition of new work by Brooklyn-based artist Hugo McCloud. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, January 29 from 6:00-8:00 pm. The artist will be present. Sean Kelly is also delighted to announce that the gallery now represents Hugo McCloud.

For his first solo exhibition with Sean Kelly, McCloud has created eleven new, abstract works, mixing unconventional industrial materials—aluminum sheeting, silver aluminum butane paint, and black liquid tar—with traditional pigment and woodblock printing techniques. A self-taught artist, unbound by classical academic strictures, McCloud approaches his work in a visceral, physical way, privileging blowtorches and hammers as much as brushes and palettes. In this exhibition, McCloud furthers his search for beauty in the overlooked and perfection within imperfection.

Drawing on the rawness of the urban environment, McCloud works on tarpaper instead of canvas, enveloping it in layers of liquid tar, foil and aluminum roof coating. The surfaces are prepared on the floor, torched, painted, hammered and stamped until extraordinary transformations take place. The resulting works push the limits of their utilitarian materials and challenge the viewer’s perceptions.

Palindrome will be divided thematically in two different exhibition spaces. Six silver works will be on view in the front gallery and five black works will be on view in the lower gallery. Included among these are two monumental, sculptural wall pieces constructed from the rough-hewn woodblocks McCloud used to stamp the paintings in the exhibition. These instruments of production are reimagined, becoming works unto themselves and deepening McCloud’s compelling exploration of object regeneration.

Sean Kelly recently presented McCloud’s work in the gallery’s 2014 summer group exhibition, From Pre-History to Post-Everything, and in the gallery’s presentation at the 13th edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach.