Exhibition poster. Design: e-Types.

Press Release, April 2024

Simon Sebastian invites us into a city we know so well yet have never seen before. His solo exhibition, ‘Somewhere in a City’, presents hidden and new narratives collected from our shared spaces. Located at Værnedamsvej 6, 1619 Copenhagen, the exhibition is opening on April 26th 2024.

Driven by the transformative power of relocating objects to new contexts, Simon Sebastian describes himself as a "hoarder" of the city's identity and symbols. His artistic practice goes beyond conventional boundaries; he is not merely an artist but also a collector.

Through his artworks, he crafts abstractions that both directly and indirectly refer to and integrate elements collected from the city's architecture, cultural history, and urban structure. This approach, refined over several years, involves placing figures, representations, and symbols into dialogue with the external world, creating a mutual exchange where stolen elements are reborn bearing new perspectives. Objects including fences, posters, poster columns, and city gates, mixed with materials such as plaster, tin, oil, and acrylic paint, provide inspiration for playful, vibrant time-images.

Simon Sebastian, Somewhere in a City, 2024.

Simon Sebastian, Somewhere in a City, 2024.

Delving into the structural complexities of urban space, Simon Sebastian continuously interacts with various public spaces, ranging from abandoned wave power plants and caves to commercial buildings and bridges. He is currently experimenting with 3D-scanned pieces, using them as casts for tin sculptures displayed in car windows, where they take on the appearance of abstractions over classic poster columns. Site-specificity and recycling are central to his practice, exploring how the environment affects the final artwork and the perception of it. By deconstructing the city's iconography and exploring the intersection of art and urbanity, Simon Sebastian transforms symbols into timeless artworks with contemporary relevance. Like echoes of the city.

Simon Sebastian, born in 1996, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts – Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Bergen, as well as from the National School of Art of Paris-Cergy. Simon has presented a range of selected solo exhibitions such as “Thanks for sharing Copenhagen'' curated by Brask in Copenhagen, Denmark, “Carving Lost Triumphs'' at Albert Contemporary in Odense, Denmark, “Come on let’s use it again” at Kunstlageret in Bergen, Norway among others. Furthermore, Simon has participated in selected group exhibitions such as “Materials Matters“, at Den Frie in Copenhagen, Denmark, “Demain” at the National School of Arts Paris-Cergy in Paris, France to mention a few.

Opening: Friday the 26th of April, from 4pm.
Exhibition period: 26th April - 19th May, 2024.