Sean Sullivan

Sean Sullivan (b. 1975, Bronx, NY) lives and works in Hudson Valley, NY.

The work of Sean Sullivan deftly plays with paradoxes and limitations. It is bound by a set of very specific procedures and parameters, which allow it to become, paradoxically, limitless. Something between a painting, drawing, monoprint, and a piece of writing, Sullivan’s compact works marvelously resist classification. They consist of oil stick transferred to paper (often found paper from old books and more recently, Japanese printmaking paper). The rather elaborate process is a hybrid sort of drawing and printmaking. Given that the application of his mark making is largely guided by rulers and washers, his technical vocabulary is quite restrained, and yet the resultant images, which range from off-kilter, geometric design-like patterns to architectural interiors and exteriors to more exuberant biomorphic abstractions, are as rich and variegated as his supports are small.

There is an odd, radically meticulous and devotional quality to what he does. It is, at times, redolent of the pictorially dense and mathematical logic of the arabesque, while at other times, it seems to be the byproduct of an almost mystical possession, while still at others, the diagrammatic glossolalia of a splendidly unhinged scholiast. Imagining the production of these pieces, one pictures a figure insistently bent over as if in prayer, or toiling over an illuminated manuscript, or finally, elaborately composing a piece of joyful music– a piece of music for which the instrument has yet to be invented– activities that are probably not so dissimilar to one another in the entrancing and inimitable universe of Sean Sullivan.

Recent solo exhibitions include Isthmus in formation, Linn Lühn, Düsseldorf, 2024; Excitations (drawings of concern), Et Al., San Francisco, 2023; Faith in Doubt, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023; In the shade of a tree, Devening Projects, Chicago, 2023; and Elegysome, Feuilleton, Los Angeles, 2020.

Recent group exhibitions include Hudson Valley Artists 2024: Bibliography, The Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, 2024; lucent, Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen; Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda; Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford; The Levinsky Gallery, Plymouth, 2023; A Minor Constellation, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2022; Feelings are Facts, Poker Flats, Williamstown, 2021; Three Painters, The Arts Center at Duck Creek, East Hampton, 2020; Slow and Everywhere Like Breath, Markus Luettgen Gallery, Düsseldorf, 2020; and Solitude, Shrine Gallery, New York, 2020.

CV

Sunset on a green facade, the sea in the distance, 2024. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8 1/4 x 10 1/4 in (21 x 26 cm)

Palmette in pink, 2024. Oil stick and staples on Kitakata paper, 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in (21 x 26.7 cm)

The Automobile, 2023. Oil stick and staples on Kitakata paper, 8 1/4 x 10 1/4 in (21 x 26 cm)

Attar of Light, 2024. Oil stick on Kitakata paper, 8 1/4 x 10 1/4 in (21 x 26 cm)

Doubt About, 2023. Oil stick on Newsprint, 9 x 12 in (22.86 x 30.48 cm)

Installation image, Faith in Doubt, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023

Abacus for remuneration (debts, sufferings, trespasses, forgiveness), 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8.25 x 10.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

You and I, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8.25 x 10.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

Installation image, Faith in Doubt, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023

Memory Machine, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8.5 x 10.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

St.Rose of Lima, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8.25 x 10.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

Installation image, Faith in Doubt, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023

Two Thieves, 2023. Oil stick on Newsprint, 9 x 11 in (22.86 x 27.94 cm)

A car passes in the night, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8.25 x 10.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

The Schismatics, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8 x 10 in (20.32 x 25.4 cm)

Origins, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 10.25 x 8.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

Installation image, Faith in Doubt, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023

Eye of Order, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 10.25 x 8.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

Beads (for Kitty), 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8.25 x 10.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

A day ends, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8.25 x 10.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

Ex-Voto, 2023. Oil stick on Kitikata paper, 8.25 x 10.25 in (20.95 x 26.035 cm)

If, but what if; as opposed to if and only if, 2022. Oil stick, brass rivets on Kitikata and newsprint paper, 9 x 12 in (22.86 x 30.48 cm)

Installation image, Faith in Doubt, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023

The Proposition, 2022. Oil stick on Kitikata and newsprint paper, brass rivets, 12 x 9 in (30.48 x 22.86 cm)

Collection of Glass, 2021. Oil on paper, 7 x 10 1/4 in (17.7 x 26 cm)

Ascendion (New Mnemonics No. 1), 2020. Oil on found paper, 6 3/4 x 10 1/4 in (17.1 x 26 cm)

Ekphrastic Monastic, 2021. Oil on found paper, 8 x 6 3/4 in (20.3 x 17.1 cm)

Soft Focus, 2021. Oil on paper, 7 x 10 1/4 in (17.8 x 26 cm)

Epistolic Epistemology, 2021. Oil on Kitikata paper, 10 1/4 x 8 in (26 x 20.3 cm)

Sleep Inertia, 2021. Oil on found paper, 7 x 10 1/4 in (17.8 x 26 cm)

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

Isthmus in formation

Linn Lühn

Solo Show

March 23 - May 11, 2024

Hudson Valley Artists 2024: Bibliography

The Dorsky Museum of Art, New York

Group Show

February 04 - April 07, 2024

Faith in Doubt

Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles

Solo Show

December 02 - 2024 January 20, 2023

Material 2023

Chris Sharp Gallery, Mexico City

Group Booth

February 09 - 12, 2023

Material 2022

Chris Sharp Gallery, Mexico City

Solo Booth

April 28 - May 1, 2022