"If you place something in front of somebody, whatever you do in the background creates context," Seal says. "From the very start of painting (when I returned to painting after a period of purely sound art) I just wanted the background to be paint, to be a non-space... It was really important to me that the location was 'painting'."
Across all Seal's paintings, a void-like liminal space defines the background: ambient, timeless and uncanny. Created from dots and stabs of color, Seal blushes the gradients like makeup. The smoothness of the background contrasts with the gorgeous texture of the objects.
Constructed abstractions are camouflaged as depicted realities. Despite the Ikebana perfection of the bouquets and compositions, Seal does not work from life or photographs; he instead represents something semi-recognizable, something dancing with nearness.
Echoing his associative approach to painting and sound art, Seal's works take their titles from computer-generated words that appear scientific but are actually nonsense. Seal lets the painting take the lead.
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