Seán Cummins completed an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 2000. He makes paintings by enlarging drawings of small plants. These works explore mortality and grief by inverting the figure-ground relationship in paintings of ‘vegetal being’. He recently had a solo exhibition at the Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London. Previous projects have been shown in USA, Austria, Hungary, Poland, South Korea and South Africa as well as across the UK. Seán attended the Vermont Studio Centre, USA in 2015 as a resident artist and was an Abbey Awardee at the British School in Rome, Italy in 1997. He is a resident studio artist at One Thoresby Street, Nottingham. https://onethoresbystreet.org/members/
“Just as an almond tree monitors the increase of daylight, warmth, etc., before initiating the decision to blossom, so an artist should let expression grow and develop until the process is interrupted by an act it has been preparing all along.”
Michael Marder *
- My work reflects my experience of grief and mortality by placing value on an intimate moment of renewal. As part of my recovery from cancer I was taught mindfulness of observation that I now apply to my practice. Drawing plants then re-drawing, translating light into temperature of hue and transcribing further using negative shapes, I have devised a process that joins up many of my past interests. I transform the image with drawing and painterly strategies whereby flatness, shape and colour are prioritised. The aim is to give new life through a subversive representation that emphasises slowness, intimacy and devotion.
- This process uses negative shapes and colour to accentuate absence, giving the work an otherworldly quality. Using a negative figure ground relationship makes the image both absent and present. The representation is both there and not there, this duality hinges on a thinness of presence. Plants are sessile yet they propagate and thrive. When the day to day structures of life fail me, returning my gaze to small pleasures, investing in an intimate moment, shows me that both personal and artistic renewal can be closer to home.
*interviewed by Prudence Gibson in ‘Covert Plants: Vegetal Consciousness and Agency in an Anthropocentric World’ 2018
EDUCATION Seán Cummins
1998-2000 MA FINE ART, Goldsmiths' College, University of London
1998 ABBEY FELLOWSHIP, The British School at Rome
1988-1989 MA FINE ART, Manchester Polytechnic
1978-1981 BA (Hons) FINE ART, Manchester Polytechnic
EXHIBITIONS
SOLO & TWO PERSON
2020 A CONTROL ROOM ROMANCE, Blyth Gallery, South Kensington, London
2018 WHERE NONE EXISTS, The Attic, Nottingham
2014 THE POTATO EATERS DISCOVER COLD FUSION, Bonington Gallery, Notts
2012 THORESBY THURSDAY, One Thoresby, Nottingham
2004 CLEAVE, The Economist Building, London
1998 CAN YOU READ THIS? British School at Rome, Italy
1995 THE SENTIENT SKIN, Gasworks, London
1993 TRIANGLE AND BEYOND, Arthouse Gallery, London
GROUP
2019 DARK CONTROL, The Meter Room, Manchester Contemporary
10 YEARS, 1 Thoresby Street, Nottingham
2017 FULLY AWAKE, House for an Artist, Glasgow
NINE PAINTERS, Syson Gallery, Nottingham
‘w: double u’ TAC, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2016 PARAVENT, Harley Gallery, Notts
2015 STUDIO, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, USA
2014 NO FUN II, The Attic, Nottingham
NO FUN, Enclave, Deptford, London
2012 OPEM2, The Collection Museum and Usher Gallery, Lincoln
RE-GROUPING, Bend in the River, Gainsborough, Lincs
MARBLED REAMS, Modern Institute, Glasgow
2011 MARBLED REAMS, Limoncello, London
PILE, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
2010 PILE, Surface, Nottingham
TAKE HER FARTHER, The Wasp Room, Tether, Nottingham
2008 DRAWING OUT, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham
2007 DISTANCE, APT, Deptford, London
2006 TOMORROW WILL BE THE SAME, Chung-Ang University, South Korea
OPEN THE DRAW, Drawing Space, Southwell, Notts.
2005 FLEAMARKET, Temporary Contemporary, Deptford, London
2004 WILKOMMEN, Metropole Gallery, Folkestone
2003 TRAMPOLINE, Broadway Cinema screening, Nottingham 2004
2002 DEEPER, Rio Cinema screening, London
ARCADIA IN THE CITY, Marble Hill House, London
DRAIN, Cell Project Space, London
THE SHOW, INSA Space, Seoul, S. Korea
2000 ASSEMBLY, Stepney City, London
BLANK CANVAS, Artomatic, London
1999 RHIZOME, Gallery Kolo, Gdansk, Poland
WAR, PostMasters, Chelsea, New York
1998 CLOSE TO HOME, UFF Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
COOKED, Museo Teo, Milan
PIEROGI 2000 Flatfiles, Brooklyn, New York.
ARTISTS FROM THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME,
Villa Crispi, Naples, Italy
FULL HEAD OF HAIR, Gasworks, London
interVIEWS, Studio Gallerie, Budapest, Hungary
1996 THULPELO, Cape Town, Republic of South Africa
SAD, Gasworks, London
JOIN THE DOTS, Galerie 5010, Salzberg, Austria
1994 WHITECHAPEL OPEN, Whitechapel gallery, London
LEAD & FOLLOW, Continuity of Abstraction, Atlantis Gallery, London,
Bede Gallery, Jarrow and Poole Arts Centre
DAD, Gasworks, London