Tayloe Piggott Gallery is pleased to present A Year on Magnolia Road an exhibition of drawings, and paintings by artist Sebastian Blanck. Sebastian Blanck is a New York-based artist who conjures the nostalgic interaction between man and nature. Using vibrant colors to craft familiar outdoor scenes, Blanck captures fleeting yet touching moments in life. Blank’s most recent body of work for this exhibition includes broad perspective seasonal vignettes evoking the solitary nature of passing time.
Blanck paints compelling scenes that express small, intimate, moments of life. His works on canvas range from depicting vivid portraits of loved ones and children at play, to also capturing quotidian experiences in bright, saturated colors. His black and white ink on paper works, invite the viewer to step into his cherished world. Often touching and emotional in spirit, Blanck’s work displays both a familiarity with each subject and a commitment to connecting individuals through the power of nostalgic, bold imagery.
Like the Impressionists before him, Blanck challenges the viewer to stand still and lose oneself in the narratives through strong lines, vibrant color, and playful composition. Blanck’s paintings are an expression of the feelings that connect us with one another. Working from photographs, he has tasked himself to making a painting a day. This structure allows him to work quickly and intuitively without giving way to overworked canvases but reveling in the unintended mistakes and possibilities.
Blanck received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. In the late 1990’s he worked as an assistant for American figurate artist, Alex Katz. Although influenced by Katz, Blanck’s work varies greatly due to the intimacy of his subjects and the evidence of his hand in the work.
Throughout his career, he has had solo exhibitions in California, Colorado, Maryland, New York, Switzerland, Sweden, and Wyoming and had been featured in group shows in New York, Chicago and Sweden. In 2001, he was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. Widely recognized for his musical contributions in addition to his painting, Blanck has exhibited at galleries in the United States and Europe. His work has been reviewed in publications including New York Magazine, Artforum, Paper Magazine, and The New Yorker.