Hugo Lugo

Hugo Lugo


I like to think of my work as a serious game at the cross points of drawing, painting and photography. I am interested in the formal aspects of language and representation, in viewing objects as carriers of potential meanings and in strange situations that cause wonder. Especially the experiences where we are confronted with things that are difficult to explain. The situations in which I place my subjects usually involve an ethical dilemma, a ‘to do or not to do’; not so much as in a moral approach to life, but more about the complexity of the human condition.

My initial approach to art, like many, was marked by scenes of posters and replicas of genre paintings like landscapes and sill lifes. From this I think stems the underlying comment on the ‘sublime’ and the pictorial legacy of Romanticism that is somehow present in my work, where subjects fall into the background, allowing the center of attention to move away from them, and into the vast remainder of the scene.

In broad terms my work elaborates on two main aspects of human nature: the idea of subject as a representation, and representation itself. I look between the lines of these formal investigations for the possibility of content that goes beyond the self-referential, to suggest something more profound, even if it’s only from a surface.

Hugo Lugo
Born in Los Mochis, Sin., Mexico, 1974


His work has been shown in cities abroad, including Caracas, Amsterdam, Paris, Mexico City, Bogotá, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro and Singapore. His awards include the Mexican Young Creator´s Grant, the National Young Artists Award, and more recently 1st prize at Rufino Tamayo´s Museum of Contemporary Art Biennale.

He´s been developing work in various disciplines, mainly drawing, painting and photography. Sculpture, murals, and installation have lately given his work the opportunity to explore new dimensions of meaning.