Sean Crossley

Sean Crossley (b. 1987, Australia) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. He uses painting as a practical means to explore different relationships between abstraction and realism, both of painting as an artistic discipline and within a broader social field. As such, it is concerned with both the intrinsic workings of paintings within their own historical continuum, as well as the way they operate as (conceptual) objects embedded in an overarching visual culture. While often considered as binary, Crossley's painting points to a correlation between the abstract and realist, which is much more complex and composes itself in reciprocity. Like a feedback loop, subjects that are often quotidian or conventional, such as faces, objects, or public spaces, are gradually weaved into or fused with other matters or systems. Tangible on the surface of the painting, where the pentimento reveals haphazard connections between different subject matters and compositions, it is equally present in the dialogue between the different works and their interaction with their immediate surroundings. Following the exhibition "Recreational Painting" at Harlan Levey Projects in Brussels (2019), Crossley took part in the residency programme at WIELS Centre for Contemporary Art, Brussels. In September 2021, his exhibition "Rénovation de la Bourse" opened in the same venue.

Courtesy of Harlan Levey Projects