George Sewell
GEORGE SEWELL is a self-taught artist who has been working in New York City for over 30 years. He came to New York from his native London in the late 60's, traveling with his Broadway acting father, and quickly became enamored of the city's world class urban chaos. Strongly influenced by the street scenes of the 1970's in lower Manhattan, he first voiced his creativity through graffiti art. Soon, his art moved away from the street and into the studio where he translated the vibrant style of abstract graffiti into richly visual equivalents of urban folk art. Sensuous color fields, transfigured geometry, masked alphabets and common forms collide in compositions on canvas, paper, wood and found material. Sewell's paintings offer an homage to daily life of New York City, it's chaos, motion, passion and color: jazz music, water towers, coffee cups, old signage... His work keeps pace with the dramatically rhythmic pulse of the urban experience.
Sewell's work has shown in New York City, Beacon New York, Maine, Boston, Los Angeles, London and Norway. His latest one-man show at Cornichon in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is preceded by other solo exhibitions at The Vanbrunt Gallery in Beacon New York, the Terne Gallery, The Gallery at John Allan's and The Gallery Upstairs at Flamingo East. He has also exhibited in group shows at the Van Brunt Gallery, New York Exhibition, A.R.E.A. (Artists Representing Environmental Arts), Rainbow Connection Gallery, Stellwig Seguy Gallery, The Fun Gallery and the Ward Nasse Gallery. Sewell was a featured artist in the 1998 and 2000 Bergen Norway International Music Festival and was commissioned to do interior and exterior installations for the Broadway musical RENT at New York's Nederlander Theater, Boston's Schubert Theater and London's Shaftsbury Theatre. Other commercial work includes illustration and design for Sony and Atlantic Records.
George lives and works in New York City and Belfast, Maine. His other projects include an almost 5 year old daughter Piper and an almost 2 year old son Rory.
