Works with time-based visual arts, community engagement and collective social actions. As a Chinese-Russian-American, Hoover reframes issues of displacement, language failure, and cultural disjuncture. His art takes on many forms including video installation, performance, social practice and installations. It is underscored by values often found in traditional Chinese art practices such repetition, meditation and the utilization of basic non-art materials including water, copper, sweat, and basic found objects. Often Hoover works with conceptual strategies, allowing the concept of the work to guide the form and materials, layering these works with textual or written elements.
In addition to his work as a visual artist, since 2004, Hoover has worked as a curator and gallery director, focusing on participatory design and community engagement as well as empowering audiences through exhibitions, public programs, festival and special events. These range from conventional white wall art shows in museums, galleries and art fairs, to black box screenings, popup happenings, performances, and art in alternative contexts. Some of the more untraditional contexts in which he has curated exhibitions include a variety of public spaces such as garages, moving trucks, parking lots, former military forts and a sea cave. Currently his works as the founder and director of Collective Action Studio, an art production and participatory engagement design company based in San Francisco and works on independent curatorial projects internationally.
Hoover holds Bachelor Degrees in Peace Studies and French Literature from Colgate University, a Master Degree in New Genres Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Master Degree of Public Administration of International Management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Hoover has performed, curated, and exhibited at numerous venues around the world including the Venice Biennale for Architecture, 2012, as an artist featured in the US Pavilion (Design Action for the Common Good); the Sculpture Quadrenniale Riga, Latvia, 2016; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Art Life Festival in Guangzhou, China 2011; Werkstattkino, München, Germany; Time-Based Art Festival at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR, 2011; the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; the Berkeley Art Museum, and many other venues.