Seán Cummins explores mortality and grief by inverting the figure-ground relationship in paintings of ‘vegetal being’.
-Biography
Seán Cummins completed an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 2000. His paintings and drawings explore ideas of spatial immersion. 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 member of the artists’ group Stand Assembly and a resident studio artist at One Thoresby Street, Nottingham.
-Statement
“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 2018, interviewed by Prudence Gibson,
Covert Plants: Vegetal Consciousness and Agency in an Anthropocentric World, Page 32.
My work reflects a personal experience of grief and mortality by placing value on an intimate moment of life and renewal. I make acrylic paintings using enlarged images of small plants. This process uses negative shapes that emphasise absence and colour that gives the work an otherworldly quality.
After surviving cancer and a double bereavement, my work recently returned to earlier interests in organic and vegetal forms. Stories of survival are among the most enduring humans have, connecting us across culture and time.
As part of my recovery, I was taught mindfulness of observation that I then applied to my plants. Using a negative figure ground relationship makes the image both absent and present. This duality hinges on a thinness of presence. The representation is both here and not here.
Plants are sessile, immobile yet they propagate, grow and thrive. When the superstructures of our life fail us, returning our gaze to small pleasures, shows us that growth can be closer to home.
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