Clustered & Placed
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Julia Sebastian
Opening Night: August 4, 6-10 p.m. Gallery Hours: August 4 - August 26 Wed-Fri 5-8 p.m.; Sat 12-3 p.m. Julia Sebastian is a Cincinnati-based artist who received an MFA from the University of Cincinnati, DAAP and a BA from Transylvania University in Lexington, KY. In 2015, Sebastian held a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. Sebastian is currently a part-time Professor of Art at Northern Kentucky University. Exhibition Statement: My work is a material experimentation in uncovering what constitutes our built environments. We buy and build pots and chairs that had material lives before we met and will continue in some material form after we are no longer together. We fill our spaces with plants that once belonged to the earth. Landscapes hand on walls waiting to transport us to green space within our houses of concrete and drywall. We mix and match, reorganize, reclaim furniture, and re-contexualize objects as they drift in and out of our lives. Material concealing and lost histories is our jam. We design spaces for our comfort and ask materials and objects to collaborate in providing the optimal pleasing vibes all the time. Our constructed comfort is steeped in complex historical conversations and rich material identities that speak loudly while we relax and drink tea. My work blatantly complicates our expectations of how material combinations collide and reverberate throughout their space. The goal of my work is to shake our brains to reconnect with the power of spaces. Spaces are where we spend all our time, and are political, cultural, and deeply personal areas that define the actions and conversations that take place within them. This fact is why material sensitivity is so vital. Being sensitively engaged with your environment leads to the magical realization that all materials and spaces affect and engage our bodies and brains through defining material moves on a daily basis. My work rewards engaged looking and material exploration, which is a practice I deeply hope viewer takes with them as they exit the gallery. See more of Julia's work here. -- This event is free and open to the public. |
