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Sean Kelly Gallery is delighted to participate in the first edition of Art Basel Qatar, with a solo presentation of new work by Hugo McCloud. Created specifically for the fair, this focused body of work, entitled Pollinated Migration, deepens McCloud’s ongoing exploration of migration, global commerce, and the ecological systems that bind these narratives together. Known for transforming single-use plastic into richly layered compositions, McCloud continues to expand the language of his practice, charting the movement of people and goods through scenes of markets, flora, and everyday labor. For over a decade, McCloud has traveled to markets and industrial sites across India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, and the UAE, observing and documenting the networks of exchange that structure contemporary life. These journeys inform both the material and subject matter of his work: plastic bags are cut, fused, and layered into tactile surfaces that map environmental impact and the unseen workforce behind worldwide circulation. The presentation at Art Basel Qatar builds upon McCloud’s recent major work Dislocated Origins, 2022–2024, commissioned for the Fenix Museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, which captured a fragment of the international story of migration. In that work, dozens of figures, each driven by necessity, hope, or survival, foregrounded the human realities of displacement, while drawing a poignant parallel between the precarious treatment of refugees and the ambiguous disposability of plastic. With Pollinated Migration, McCloud extends these concerns through a more localized lens, focusing on the date palm and the agricultural workers whose hands shape its harvest. Rendered in his signature plastic-based technique, Pollinated Migration resonates deeply with the Gulf region, where the date palm is both a historic symbol of sustenance and a contemporary marker of cultural identity. This body of work marks the beginning of a new series in which McCloud examines fruit and agricultural products as connective agents, offering a reflection on how we move through the world, how landscapes bear witness to these journeys, and how both people and plants adapt across borders and time.

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ABOUT ARTISTS : Hugo McCloud

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Born in Palo Alto California in 1980, Hugo McCloud is one of the most prolific artists working today. McCloud’s work has quickly evolved through a process of restless experimentation, bringing inventiveness and fearlessness to the act of making. The artist is engaged in an ongoing quest to elevate and master diverse methodologies and the array of subjects his work addresses. An abiding, unifying theme is Hugo’s preoccupation with finding beauty in the everyday. Self-taught with a background in industrial design, McCloud’s practice is unrestricted by classical, academic tenets. He has gravitated toward materials that could be considered abject – roofing materials, solder, and presently, single-use plastic bags. Drawing inspiration from the rawness of the urban landscape, McCloud creates rich, large-scale abstract paintings and by fusing unconventional industrial materials with traditional pigment and woodblock printing techniques. McCloud’s newest body of figural work touches on notions of class, particularly through his use of plastic bags. His investigation into plastic began after traveling to India and seeing multi-color polypropylene plastic sacks everywhere. Observing the downcycle of these bags from their creation to the companies that purchased them for the distribution of products, to the trash pickers in Dharavi slums, McCloud saw how this ubiquitous material passed through the hands of individuals at every level of society. These representational works address issues concerning the economics of labor, geopolitics and the environmental impact of plastic. McCloud continues his practice of incorporating industrial materials using plastic as a tool to better understand our similarities and differences as a human race; to connect to our environment; and to contribute to reversing the negative impact of our carbon footprint. McCloud has been the subject of 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. He has 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 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 Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York; the Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York; the Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art; The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami; the Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, Michigan; the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, Florida; the Hort Family Collection, New York; The Joyner Giuffrida Collection of Abstract Art, San Francisco; and The UBS Collection, New York. Hugo McCloud lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Tulum, Mexico.

Art Basel Qatar is Art Basel's fifth premier event and our newest show, running February 5-7, 2026 in Doha. Anchored in a dynamic long-term partnership with Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) and QC+, Art Basel Qatar will debut as a concisely curated showcase celebrating Qatar’s vibrant cultural landscape and the dynamic arts ecosystem of the MENA region. The inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar will be held at M7, a creative hub in the heart of Doha, as well as at the Doha Design District in downtown Msheireb.

mpefm QATAR fair art press release