Hugo Crosthwaite

Background

Hugo Crosthwaite was born in 1971, in Tijuana, Mexico, and was reared in the tourist-heavy beach town of Rosarito, where his parents owned a curio shop.

Education

In his early years, Hugo worked at his parents' shop. In 1997, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Arts and Sciences from San Diego State University.

Career

In 2004, Hugo had a solo exhibition, titled "Caprichos", at Tropico De Nopal Gallery Art-Space in Los Angeles. The same year, his 6-foot square architectural drawing was included in the XII Bienal Rufino Tamayo, organized by the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, and was shown at many venues throughout Mexico from 2004 to early 2006.

In 2006, Hugo participated in "Paper Traces: Latin American Prints and Drawings from the Museum's Collection" at the San Diego Museum of Art. In 2007, Crosthwaite's work was included in a traveling exhibition, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, titled "TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art". In 2010, Hugo held his solo exhibition, "Brutal Beauty: Drawings by Hugo Crosthwaite", at the San Diego Museum of Art. For the exhibition, he completed a monumental drawing, entitled "A Tail for Two Cities" over a two-week period at the museum. The same year, in 2010, the artist was commissioned by collector Richard Harris to create the work "Death March" for his collection, titled "Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection". In 2012, this work was exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center.

It also was in 2012, that Crosthwaite had a solo exhibition, "Tijuanerias", at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles gallery. The exhibition consisted of 102 drawings and installation, which explored the "Black Legend", that mythologizes the border city. That very year, Hugo's work "Bartolomé" was included in a collaborative exhibition, titled "Behold, America!", at the San Diego Museum of Art.

In 2013, Hugo represented Mexico in the California-Pacific Triennial, curated by Dan Cameron, at the Orange County Museum of Art. The same year, he was included in the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art's "The New World" group exhibition, for which he created a mural, titled "Guadalupana March".

During his career, Crosthwaite has taken part in many other solo and international exhibitions, held at various galleries, including Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Pierogi Gallery in New York, ArtSpace Virginia Miller Galleries in Miami, Mason Murer Fine Art gallery in Atlanta, among others.

In 2018, the artist finished a mural at Mana Contemporary in Miami, Florida.

Currently, Hugo divides his time between Tijuana, Los Angeles and New York.

Achievements

• Hugo Crosthwaite is an internationally recognized artist, who gained prominence for his black and white graphite and charcoal drawings and murals.
  
  In 2019, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., named Hugo the 2019 winner of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.
  
  Crosthwaite's work is held in private collections, as well as museum collections, including those of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Latin American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and the San Diego Museum of Art, among others.

Works

More photos

• artwork

  • Death March

• book cover

  • Tijuana Bible, #3

  • Tijuana Bible, #4

• drawing

  • Dos Hermonis

  • Coqueta

  • Untitled, Tree

  • Untitled, Their

  • La Güera

  • Delicates

  • Tijuana Radiant Shine, #13

  • Tijuana Radiant Shine, #14

  • Tijuaneria, #105

  • Tijuaneria, #111

  • Tijuaneria, #118

  • Tijuaneria, #129

  • Tijuaneria, #126

  • Tijuaneria, #123

• installation

  • Calacas de Quinn Mural + Cutouts

Views

Hugo alternates between mythological subjects and contemporary ones, often combining the two. Francisco Goya, Eugene Delacroix, Theodore Gericault and Arnold Bocklin are among the many artists, that have inspired his work.

The artist also includes an exploration of modern abstraction in his compositions. Hugo considers each work to be a vision of him, in which history, mythology and abstraction collide. This combination creates a timeless and beautiful product.

Quotations: "I create works of art, that are beautiful. Not a beauty, that duplicates the commonplace aesthetic, molded by advertising and mass media imagery, but a personal intimate beauty. The depiction of human suffering and violence permeates my works. The works themselves are not violent, rather thoughtful and rife with seductive imagery. I explore the complexities of human expression, everything from alienation to acceptance and even celebration."

"I love the immediacy and tactility of drawing, the breaking of the white surface with images from my own personal narrative. I let the act of drawing dictate my compositions. My works are completed using graphite and charcoal. This medium allows me to seamlessly combine classical figurative representation with modern abstraction. This mixture creates feelings of chaos and spontaneity, reminiscent of Tijuana, Mexico, the city from where I came. In my depiction of figures, I am dedicated to using classical technique, minute in detail. The absence of color allows each work to be viewed as an objective documentation of events, from which the spectator's involvement is forbidden. It is not my objective to create compositions to which viewers can relate. It is my intent to create works, that maintain their mysteriousness in spite of their classical figurative representation."

Personality

Physical Characteristics: In 2018, Hugo was diagnosed with Stage III testicular cancer.