Sebastian Black is a budding young New York-based artist that grabbed the attention of influential collectors and galleries. The recent graduate of Colombia’s Visual Arts MFA program has a studio on 125th street in Harlem, however the workspace belongs to the school where he will soon have to clear out. Black stood out in the contemporary art scene for his paintings of faces of dogs; specifically those of puppies.
By Farah Amin
Born in 1985, the artist mainly does paintings and installations, has turned the latter motif into his trademark. When asked about it he said, “I can’t remember why I started. I needed something to paint. Puppy seemed good. Still does. When it doesn’t I’ll stop. “Trademark” isn’t so interesting to me, but motif is.” The painter is only keen on using motif, as he believes it is a pictorial device where he can use to imply significance or it could be totally empty.
His paintings have been deconstructed into abstract ones with a cubism feel to them. Nevertheless, Black doesn’t plan on doing further changes to the dogs. Furthermore, the dog paintings have been described to show some reference to modernist African masks, resembling cartoon-like puppies, and appealing to most people like a nude woman from shoulders to thighs.
Sculptural works have also been a part of Black’s recent exhibitions where examples of the work is a minimalist translation of a puppy face on a silk top and a place holder bag-in-box wine covered with cardboard which are, “basically paintings, but their content is wine and their good taste is the wine” explains Black.
