Architect-turned-painter Hugo Toro presents his first U.S. exhibition, "Ojo de Agua," at Perrotin New York. The show features over a dozen paintings and sculptures exploring water, memory, and his Franco-Mexican heritage. Toro, who was born in France and has never lived in Mexico, draws on his mother's stories and family history to create an emotional landscape centered on the Oaxacan village of Ojo de Agua. The exhibition includes a central installation of some three thousand ceramic forms flanked by two chairs representing his grandmothers from Oaxaca and Eastern France.
The exhibition matters because it marks a significant debut for Toro in the United States and with the prestigious Perrotin gallery. It also addresses broader themes of identity, displacement, and inherited memory that resonate in New York, a city defined by arrivals and cultural mixing. Toro's work challenges conventional representations of water by using melancholic reds, greens, and blacks instead of blue, offering a fresh perspective on how personal and cultural histories shape artistic expression. The show positions Toro as an emerging voice exploring the space between two cultures and the emotional geography of belonging.