Drawing from art history, Hugo invokes painters such as Marsden Hartley and Luchita Hurtado while embracing the expressive potential of gestural abstraction. His work explores themes of intimacy and queer desire, rendering these experiences with warmth and familiarity. Surreal settings, often grounded in the quiet rhythms
of everyday life in the South, anchor his figures while simultaneously engaging with the layered histories of Latin America. These histories include the colonial suppression of queer identities, gender fluidity, and indigenous spiritual practices.
Incorporating elements from Western art history—such as still life, landscapes, and the nude—Hugo recontextualizes these structures to center queer narratives. At the same time, his engagement with Mesoamerican sculptures—particularly effigy figures on vessels, which often represented humans, animals, deities, and hybrids—serves as inspiration. These forms, historically associated with fertility, cosmology, and ritual practices, are reimagined as conduits for storytelling and cultural preservation.