Hugo Crosthwaite

Hugo Crosthwaite (born 1971) is a Tijuana-born contemporary artist whose work encompasses black and white graphite and charcoal drawings, stop-motion animations, paintings, and large-scale murals. His artwork is improvisational, emerging from his portrait-drawing practice that often relies on his observations of real people in Tijuana. Crosthwaite's artwork combines portraiture, art historical references, comic book references, urban signage, commercial facades, and mythology to create layered compositions that comment on life in the border regions of San Diego/Tijuana. Crosthwaite’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (United States), Morgan Library & Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the National Museum of Mexican Art, Museum of Latin American Art, the FEMSA Collection, Mexico City and private collections in the U.S. and around the world. In 2019, Crosthwaite won first prize in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition for his submission of a stop-motion animated video entitled A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chavez. He was subsequently awarded a commission for a stop motion portrait of Dr. Anthony Fauci in 2022, which the National Portrait Gallery debuted in 2022.