Sebastian Black
Images
Sebastian Black, installation view Circle and Square, CLEARING, Brussels, 2023, photo by Benjamin Baltus
Sebastian Black, Untitled, 2022 Oil on linen, 160 × 213,5 cm, photo by Benjamin Baltus
Sebastian Black, installation view Circle and Square, CLEARING, Brussels, 2023, photo by Benjamin Baltus
Sebastian Black, Untitled, 2022 Oil on linen, 160 × 213,5 cm, photo by Benjamin Baltus
Sebastian Black, Untitled, 2022, Oil on linen, 66 × 51,5 cm, photo by Benjamin Baltus
Sebastian Black, installation view New and Used Drawings, Croy Nielsen, Vienna, 2020
Sebastian Black, Self-Portrait As A Good Boy 6, 2020, watercolor by Richard Chenoweth, Chase bank slip, hand bound portfolio acetate, 68 × 68 cm
Sebastian Black, installation view Man Seeking Qualities, Princess, New York, 2018
Sebastian Black, installation view Man Seeking Qualities, Princess, New York, 2018
![Sebastian Black, Thank you. Thank you. Now I would like to talk about how the Bush administration covered up the tapestry of Guernica by the entrance to the U.N. Security Council with some blue curtains [ears] so that those poor ladies wouldn’t have to watch Colin Powell’s W.[mouth] M.[eyes] D.[nose] slideshow. Nelson Rockefeller commissioned that tapestry and gave it to the U.N. to promote peace on earth. What would he say about such hijinks? He who had Lenin sandblasted [whiskers] off his Diego Rivera mural might have offered valuable insight! Oh those poor Guernican gals! With their hands like baseball mitts and their ears like clam fritters, [muzzle] forced to listen while Secretary Powell made his terrible case. I hope they find peace and quiet. Once in Italy I saw a painting of a damsel. She had a an ivory bosom and dimples [pupils] where her knuckles should have been. She was in the middle of a gilt frame in the middle of a great hall [muzzle, head] where nobody was saying anything. I hope they find peace like that., 2018, Oil on linen, 152.4 × 114.3 cm](http://static.croynielsen.com/site/assets/files/1108/croy_nielsen-sebastian_black_manseekingqualities_princess_2017_06-sebastian_black.2400x0.1526048275.jpg)
Sebastian Black, Thank you. Thank you. Now I would like to talk about how the Bush administration covered up the tapestry of Guernica by the entrance to the U.N. Security Council with some blue curtains [ears] so that those poor ladies wouldn’t have to watch Colin Powell’s W.[mouth] M.[eyes] D.[nose] slideshow. Nelson Rockefeller commissioned that tapestry and gave it to the U.N. to promote peace on earth. What would he say about such hijinks? He who had Lenin sandblasted [whiskers] off his Diego Rivera mural might have offered valuable insight! Oh those poor Guernican gals! With their hands like baseball mitts and their ears like clam fritters, [muzzle] forced to listen while Secretary Powell made his terrible case. I hope they find peace and quiet. Once in Italy I saw a painting of a damsel. She had a an ivory bosom and dimples [pupils] where her knuckles should have been. She was in the middle of a gilt frame in the middle of a great hall [muzzle, head] where nobody was saying anything. I hope they find peace like that., 2018, Oil on linen, 152.4 × 114.3 cm
![Sebastian Black, The job of us artists is to draw new lines. All the old lines are straight [whiskers], even the curvy ones and us artists gotta draw new ones. Us American artists, we thought the road was really something. For a hundred years we poked at its vanishing point [mouth] with our thoughts. Like sea lions we thought we could balance our dreams on its pointed tip [nose]. Like sea lions we were wrong! Us artists need to learn more from the Parisian Communards who barricaded the streets but pierced the houses [eyes, pupils] and flowed thataway. They “found flowers [muzzle] which are chairs” said Rimbaud confusingly. Oh artists! We are the Most Influential Artist’s of 2017 yet we must be influenced in turn. Let us remember to gaze upon that the tear shaped cloud of starlings [ear] gyrating over Central Park South and to wonder at their reflection in a glass façade [ear] as we turn to enter the Apple Store, 2018, Oil on linen, 152.4 × 114.3 cm](http://static.croynielsen.com/site/assets/files/1108/croy_nielsen-sebastian_black_manseekingqualities_princess_2017_07-sebastian_black.2400x0.1526047365.jpg)
Sebastian Black, The job of us artists is to draw new lines. All the old lines are straight [whiskers], even the curvy ones and us artists gotta draw new ones. Us American artists, we thought the road was really something. For a hundred years we poked at its vanishing point [mouth] with our thoughts. Like sea lions we thought we could balance our dreams on its pointed tip [nose]. Like sea lions we were wrong! Us artists need to learn more from the Parisian Communards who barricaded the streets but pierced the houses [eyes, pupils] and flowed thataway. They “found flowers [muzzle] which are chairs” said Rimbaud confusingly. Oh artists! We are the Most Influential Artist’s of 2017 yet we must be influenced in turn. Let us remember to gaze upon that the tear shaped cloud of starlings [ear] gyrating over Central Park South and to wonder at their reflection in a glass façade [ear] as we turn to enter the Apple Store, 2018, Oil on linen, 152.4 × 114.3 cm
![Sebastian Black, There were six long art students, thin like spaghetti, standing around the nude model [whiskers]. The model posed with her head thrust forward and her fingers locked together behind her back [nose, mouth]. Her stage was a little round platform with a blanket thrown over it [muzzle]. The art students looked up at her and one by one broke their vine charcoal into two pieces [pupils]. They rubbed the black sticks onto pads of newsprint until the shape of the powder that crumbled off resembled the shape of the model. Meanwhile, the teacher sat by the window and fiddled with a paint flecked oval boombox [head]. He carried it around the room like a thurifer, trailing plumes of static. He waved it about, and pushed its antennae this way and that [ears] until, finally, it shouted “Autozone!”, 2018, Oil on linen, 152.4 × 114.3 cm](http://static.croynielsen.com/site/assets/files/1108/croy_nielsen-sebastian_black_manseekingqualities_princess_2017_08-sebastian_black.1500x0.1526047366.jpg)
Sebastian Black, There were six long art students, thin like spaghetti, standing around the nude model [whiskers]. The model posed with her head thrust forward and her fingers locked together behind her back [nose, mouth]. Her stage was a little round platform with a blanket thrown over it [muzzle]. The art students looked up at her and one by one broke their vine charcoal into two pieces [pupils]. They rubbed the black sticks onto pads of newsprint until the shape of the powder that crumbled off resembled the shape of the model. Meanwhile, the teacher sat by the window and fiddled with a paint flecked oval boombox [head]. He carried it around the room like a thurifer, trailing plumes of static. He waved it about, and pushed its antennae this way and that [ears] until, finally, it shouted “Autozone!”, 2018, Oil on linen, 152.4 × 114.3 cm
Sebastian Black, installation view Completed Paintings, Croy Nielsen, Berlin, 2016
Sebastian Black, installation view Completed Paintings, Croy Nielsen, Berlin, 2016
Sebastian Black, Concerning taste let’s ask the apple: Hey apple sliced in half (muzzle). Hey you of black seeds and rotten core (whiskers,nose) of yellow skin, and stem split twain (mouth), of etc and also of etc. Who left you here on the round glass end table (head)? Are you sullying up the Eileen Gray“piece”, the Heath ceramic mugs (eyes)? Or are you, like the film of dry coffee, (pupils) adding just the right touch? Think about it. I’m gonna take a nap and if I’m sunlight when I wake up I’ll alight on you. But if I’m still just meat with arms I’m gonna move you (ears) over by the couch., 2016, Oil on linen, 60 × 45 inches / 152.5 × 114.3 cm, Unique
Sebastian Black, B (muzzle) U (ear) ren, M(nose)o(eye)sset, Parmenti(pupil)er, Toro(eye)ni(pupil).“No gestures!” (Whiskers) Said the guys, slashing the air.“New gestures!” that is. All very French. On a related note: When I tap U (ear) my phone suggests I. Is that a thought or its obviation?, 2016, Oil on linen, 60 × 45 inches / 152.5 × 114.3 cm, Unique
Sebastian Black, installation view Tales I Knows, Clearing, New York, 2015
Sebastian Black, installation view Tales I Knows, Clearing, New York, 2015
Sebastian Black, installation view Tales I Knows, Clearing, New York, 2015
Sebastian Black, Period piece, 2015, enamel on engraved dibond, 61 × 46 cm
Sebastian Black, Period piece, 2015, enamel on engraved dibond, 61 × 46 cm
Sebastian Black, Loanzy Dip, 2015, Oil on Linen, 50,8 × 66 cm, Loanzy dip surplus, 2015, Gouache and inkjet print on paper, 50,8 × 40,6 cm
Sebastian Black, Bercy Embankment, 2015, Wood, latex paint, plexiglass, cement, glass, 76,2 × 73, 6 × 152, 4 cm
Sebastian Black, installation view 3 New Shapes, Balice Hertling, Paris, 2015
Sebastian Black, Bank Desk Embankment, 2015, Wood, acrylic paint, plaster, hydrocal, moss, sand, modeltrees, 116, 8 × 73, 6 × 116, 8 cm
Sebastian Black, Bank Desk Embankment, 2015 (detail), Wood, acrylic paint, plaster, hydrocal, moss, sand, modeltrees, 116, 8 × 73, 6 × 116, 8 cm
Sebastian Black, Pink Deposit, 2015, Watercolour on paper, check, 70 × 65 cm
CV
Education
2012
MFA, Columbia University, New York
2007
BA, Vassar College, New York
Selected Solo exhibitions
2023
Circle and Square, Clearing, Brussels
2022
Drawings, Clearing, Brussels
2020
Dear Friends and Repetition, Clearing, Beverly Hills
New and Used Drawings, Croy Nielsen, Vienna
Allergy Season, Clearing, Brussels
Local Warming, Clearing, New York
2019
Modern Times, Ribordy Thetaz, Geneva
2018
Self-Portrait as a Good Boy, Clearing, New York
Man Seeking Qualities, Princess, New York
2017
My Interests, Clearing, Brussels
2016
Completed Paintings, Croy Nielsen, Berlin
2015
Tales I knows, Clearing, New York
3 New Shapes, Balice Hertling, Paris
Sample Sale (with India Donaldson), 83 Pitt Street, New York
2014
Sebastian Black and Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles
Towards a Huger Terrace, Retrospective, New York
Authentix (with India Donaldson), Queer Thoughts, Chicago
2013
–__ (with Jacob Kassay), Room East, New York
_____. (with Robin Cameron), Bodega, Philadelphia
Unique Newark, Clearing, New York
The Elements of Style, Karma Amagansett
Ge-Stilted at the Gestalt-ar, Clearing, Brussels
2012
The Virgin Islands, Roberts and Tilton, Los Angeles
Lackawanna (with Kyle Thurman), Clearing, Brussels
Period Pieces, Puppy Paintings, Prototype, Placeholders, Clearing, New York
Ps N Qs, The National Exemplar, New York
Paperworks, Karma, New York
2011
Period Pieces., Tomorrow Gallery, Toronto
Walk-Ins Welcome, Nymphius Projekte, Berlin
2010
The Playful Paw-Strokes of The Wilderness, Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York
Selected Group exhibitions
2023
Maiden Voyage, Clearing, New York
2021
OFTEN VARY NEVER CHANGE, Clearing, New York
Grand Ménage, Clearing, Paris
Reflections: Human/Nature, curated by Matt Black, Gana Art, Seoul
Arms Of The Sea, Various Small Fires, Seoul
2020
Escapism, Meredith Rosen Gallery, New York
THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS, Clearing, Knokke-Heist
LIFE STILL, Clearing, New York
2019
Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue, Proyectosmonclova, Mexico City
2016
Two-Story, Clearing, Brussels
2015
EAGLES II, Galeria Marlborough, Madrid
Passing Leap, Hauser & Wirth, New York
2014
Shit Like Hair, White Flag Projects, St. Louis
Warm Math, Balice Hertling, New York
Hypothesis For an Exhibition, Dominque Levy, New York
Imitatio Christies, Galleria Zero, Milan
Painting, Galeria Zero, Milan
2013
Stay in Love, Laurel Gitlen and Lisa Cooley, New York
The Stairs, Algus Greenspon, New York
The Writing Is On The Wall, Jonathan Viner, Kent
Very New Works, Duve, Berlin
The Wall, Marlborough Chelsea, New York
My Words Mark, 247365, Brooklyn
2012
Dogma, Metro Pictures, New York
Ur, Room East, New York
Its Endless Undoing, Thierry Goldberg, New York
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Fisher Landau Center for Art, New York
Ten Ten, Jason Alexander, New York
Blind Cut, Marlborough Gallery, New York
2011
Royal Rumble at Waffle House, Clearing and The Journal Gallery, Miami
Heads with Tails, Harris Lieberman, New York
Space Oddity, Kunsthalle Andtrax, Mallorca
Curatorial projects
2016
Sex and the City, Croy Nielsen, Berlin
2015
This a way, White Flag Projects, St. Louis
Selected Press
2016
“Sebastian Black”,The New Yorker, January
Bogart, Aaron, “Sebastian Black/Clearing New York”, interview, Flash Art, January
2015
Ganz, John, “Sebastian Black with John Ganz”, interview, The Brooklyn Rail, December
Salsbury, Britany, “Sebastian Black”, Artforum, May
2014
Bacon, Alex, “SEBASTIAN BLACK’S ‘Pink Blink’ and the Logic of the Screen”, The Brooklyn Rail, February
2012
Ganz, John, “Sebastian Black”, Artforum, January
2010
McEwen, Adam, “Dog Show: Adam McEwen interviews Sebastian Black”, Interview Magazine, August
