Sebastian Dacey

Sebastian Dacey plays with the media of painting and redefines its boundaries. In addition to his drawings on paper, the artist is exhibiting a range of large-format textile works. Like skins hung up to dry, the painted Molton or linen fabrics hang on bamboo rods and branches, giving the appearance of relics of a secretive event, a ritual act. The textile works are often placed one above the other in several layers or in an overlapping configuration; the material is partly torn, perforated or frayed. Working methods, design vocabulary and material selection have a hint of the archaic, sometimes even heraldic. Additional associations with life forms of times long gone are revived by imaginative vegetal structures on paper, which in their delicacy create a contrast to the motifs of the large formats. The modified representation of the eye - an important symbol in many cultures since time immemorial - plays an important role and once again points to the use of symbolic language and stylistic idiom of ancient cultures.

Dacey's painting creates a spatial presence that not only goes back to its powerful colours and shapes but also arises from the occasional escape from two-dimensionality. His assemblages are characterised by the playful combination of discovered objects, the stiff feel of colour-soaked materials and the superimposition of individually designed motifs. An idiosyncratic complexity emanates from this interplay that permeates Sebastian Dacey’s work like a recurring theme.

Sebastian Dacey (born in 1982 in London) lives and works in Murnau.