MUD CRUSHER - SEBASTIAN THOMAS
27/09/24-10/11/24
Opening Reception: Friday 27th September, 6-9pm
In this new installation of painting and sculpture Sebastian Thomas considers our bodies capacity for transformation.The artist's work draws parallels between the fluid nature of materials such as molten metal, ceramics and oil paint and the bodies ability to adapt and survive the power structures that repress it. Extruding sculptural forms will spread throughout the gallery, a root like tangle of flowing limbs and appendages attempting to find unoccupied space and break free of the room itself. These aluminium sculptures will act as a form of exhibition furniture, that will play host to a new body of ceramic artefacts. The expanding sculptures will be contained by a series of grids that dissect the gallery space, acting as both obstacles and frames on which the artist will display his new oil paintings.
Artist Biography:
Sebastian Thomas (b.1986 Reading, UK)
Thomas' practice encompasses sculpture, site specific installation and painting, central to which are the strategies of collage and assemblage. His work explores the relationship between our material reality and the body as a corporeal landscape and how it can create a breeding ground for semi-fictional objects, protagonists and places. In 2021 Thomas was a recipient of the Arts Council’s Develop Your Creative Practice Award which saw him undertake various residencies across Scotland including Cove Park, Scottish Sculpture Workshop and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop to learn the practice of metal casting. He was able to build a furnace himself and set up a small foundry near Reading where he’s working collaboratively with other artists. He graduated with an MA from Camberwell College of Art in 2017.
Recent exhibition highlights include: Realm of Dusk, 571 Gallery, Reading, UK, 2024; A New Face in Hell, ESW, Edinburgh, UK, 2023; A Tally of Distempered Parts, ASC Gallery, London, UK, 2023; Golem, Lot Projects, London, UK, 2022; The Necker, APT Gallery, London, UK, 2021; MK Calling, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK, 2020; The Weather Garden, The Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, UK, 2019; Wild Service, Kingsgate Project Space, London, UK, 2019 and Troglodyte Antiphon, Intercession Gallery, Northampton, UK, 2019.
@sebastian_thomas_art
This exhibition is kindly supported by The Henry Moore Foundation
