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Cloud grew up in Chicago where he attended the University of Illinois at Chicago for his BFA. He received his MFA from Yale University. Most recently, Cloud was awarded the 2023 – 24 Jules Guerin Rome Prize. His works reside in many public collections, including; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, The Bronx Museum, Eileen Harris-Norton, and Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum.
Evident in his edition, Large Abstract, the grid is a recurring element through which Cloud implements an orderly abstraction. Connected to his methodology of formulas and systems, the grid has been the basis of two series of paintings.
“I employ a wide range of marks, symbols, motifs, palettes, and forms in an expressive, wet-on-wet technique that blurs and blends elements together into compositions. This explosion of marks and gestures infuses my painterly surfaces with a playful, spirited abstractness. Painterly gestures and symbols combine with sculptural layers of wood, cloth, paper, and other recognizable materials to emphasize the art object’s literal and material origin. The painting’s construction preserves its commoditized dimension and upends conventional, illusory space, producing a politic that pushes away from the surface and intrudes into our world. I work with store-bought materials that I assemble into fractured shapes and unconventional pictorial spaces. I use the painting’s sacred position on the wall to suggest an uncanny relationship to the form of the mirror, the window, the door, and the shrine.” – Mike Cloud
Note: A framed example from the edition is for reference purposes only. Each impression comes unframed.
