Mike Cloud: Figure Studies presents a selection of works by Brooklyn-based artist Mike Cloud (b. 1974, Chicago) that consider language, symbolism, metaphor, history, and identity through the examination of the figure. Based around a single monumental painting, Cycle and Stable (2015), the exhibition includes the artist’s critically-acclaimed series of collages based on the work of famed photographer Annie Leibovitz and new paintings. Cloud holds a M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art and a B.F.A. from the University of Illinois-Chicago. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago; P.S.1, New York; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Slovak Republic; Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles; and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. This is the first time Cloud’s work has been shown in the greater DC area.

Cloud has been reviewed in the New York Times, Art in America, Art Review, and featured in the publication Painting Abstraction by Bob Nickas, published by Phaidon Press. His awards include the inaugural Chiaro Award from the Headlands Center for the Arts, an artist Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Barry Schactman Prize in Painting from the Yale University School of Art, as well as the Grace Holt Memorial Award in African American Issues from the University of Illinois, Chicago. His work is held in private and public collections including The Bronx Museum, New York; Lincoln Center, New York; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.