Mike Cloud’s work examines the condition of paintings in their contemporary life among countless reproductions, symbols, and descriptions. He constructs his own stretcher frames from wooden battens, often broken, that he nails together into different shapes. He staples his expressive, colorful, and heavily painted canvases within these structures, often collaging in found objects or text fragments. Cloud’s paintings-cum-sculptures are filled with multiple layers of meaning while frequently incorporating textual references from his internet research. His practice encompasses the expanded field of painting and image-making by dissecting photographic and painterly forms, scrambling text, and re-aligning content to produce new understandings.