Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction

About the Exhibition

For over two decades, Mike Cloud (b. 1974, Chicago, IL; lives in Chicago) has created symbolically loaded paintings that play with viewers’ intuitions. While his artworks’ shapes and forms have immediate associations—a Star of David, a teepee, an arrow, and more—Cloud decontextualizes these symbols, connecting them to many possible meanings. In doing so, he responds to art historical framings of abstract painting as pure, apolitical, and pristine, emphasizing instead that paintings are objects that circulate in systems of commodities, personal experiences, and language.

In this exhibition, the MCA presents new paintings by Cloud that incorporate recent developments in his practice: emojis, hinges, and the shape of an “X.” Cloud uses these elements to juxtapose emotions and introduce a flexible structure to his foldable paintings, which will be installed in various configurations on the walls and floors of the gallery. Referencing barricades and obstructions, these sculptural paintings resist straightforward interpretation and invite viewers to forge unexpected connections between form and meaning.

Mike Cloud is the 27th artist to participate in Chicago Works, a solo exhibition series at the MCA that features artists who are shaping contemporary art in the city and beyond. The exhibition is presented in the MCA’s Turner Gallery, on the museum’s fourth floor.

Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction is organized by Nolan Jimbo, Assistant Curator.

About the Artist

Mike Cloud was born and raised in Chicago. He earned a BFA from the University of Illinois Chicago (2001) and an MFA from Yale University (2003). He is currently Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University. Cloud speaks openly about teachers who have influenced his practice, including Mel Bochner, Peter Halley, Byron Kim, Kerry James Marshall, and Jessica Stockholder.

Cloud’s solo and two-person exhibitions include Story Structure, Pt. 2, The Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago (with Nyeema Morgan, 2026); Hammer Projects: Mike Cloud, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2026); Circle Chat, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago (2025); Called Ahead, Fahrenheit Madrid (2024); The Myth of Education, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2018); Bad Faith and Universal Technique, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York (2014); Systems, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2006); and Special Project: Mike Cloud, MoMA PS1, New York (2005). He has also participated in group exhibitions at Artists Space, New York; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Good Weather, Chicago; White Columns, New York; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Cloud received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Richard Pousette-Dart Award in 2023, and the Jules Guerin Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 2023. His work is also held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.