Sean Crossley

Biography

Sean Crossley 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. Crossley’s approach to painting is that of a system of exchange offering a reflexive, non-literal way to navigate the visual complexity of the information age. Like a feedback loop, subjects which 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, this way of working also reveals itself in the ongoing dialogue which gradually develops between the different bodies of works.


Following his solo exhibition Recreational Painting at Harlan Levey Projects in Brussels (2019), Crossley took part in the residency programme at WIELS Centre for Contemporary Art (Brussels, BE). In September 2021, his exhibition Rénovation de la Bourse opened in the same venue. Crossley’s work has been exhibited at Emergent (Veurne, BE), The Stable (Waregem, BE), and nGbK (Berlin, DE) among others. He is a recipient of the Martens Bequest for Painting (2015, AU) and participated in the residency programme of the Embassy of Foreign Artists - EOFA (CH) in 2021. Crossley lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.

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