A YEAR ON MAGNOLIA ROAD

Using vibrant colors to craft familiar outdoor scenes, Sebastian Blanck captures

fleeting yet touching moments in life.

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 butreveling in the unintended mistakes and possibilities.

This exhibition pairs black and white works on paper pen and ink with large-scale oil paintings in the form of broad perspective seasonal vignettes that evoke the solitary nature of passing time. Time is “I think nostalgia now has such a different [meaning]—it means the same thing, but in a much different, and more potent and positive [way] than it was. Even last year, we said “oh, sepia tones are nostalgic,” where now everybody has nostalgia for something, because the whole way the world is functioning is so different.” We experience changing seasons and an unmistakable confidence blossoming in the hand of the artist along with the inimitable magnolia.

A Year on Magnolia Road witnesses the artist’s world in lockdown; that is, his family. There’s a universality to the images; we feel as though we’re looking at something timeless, as if perhaps we’ve been there before. “I feel like my job as an artist is to look for beauty and share it, in whatever way I can, with other people who maybe don’t have those things to look at, or who aren’t looking—perhaps they don’t have time in their own lives to properly look. And that is my job—to share that beauty.”

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.

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A YEAR ON MAGNOLIA ROAD: BY SEBASTIAN BLANCK

Using vibrant colors to craft familiar outdoor scenes, Sebastian Blanck captures

fleeting yet touching moments in life.

Like the Impressionists before him, Blanck challenges the viewer to stand still

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.

MAYA FRODEMAN GALLERY

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