Sebastian Hosu b. 1988
The painting of Sebastian deals with reality – his reality. It also includes his idea of nature, which in turn is an expression of this reality.
He understands nature as a presence in painting, that is archetypal and not illustrative. But what is nature? Something that precedes us and that we belong to? Still? Or is it a long-lost experience, replaced by today’s virtual reality?
Sebastian tries to answer this question not by means of the rational mind, but with painting. In his paintings, memories of a natural presence appear, whereby bodies of people and animals, as well as the landscapes, are soaked with something original – as if the clash of nature and culture had never happened. If we look closely, we can see that the bodies, even if incomplete and fragmented are not distorted or mutilated. They are absorbed by a rushing energy. The bodies become landscape just as the landscape becomes body, in that they mutually nourish each other. As a consequence, the hierarchy between space and figure is abolished.
However, the figure resists.
Thanks to its gravity, it withstands the tendency of nothingness to devour it completely. This heaviness also acquires a physical presence in his paintings: by means of impasto oil paint which creates its own physicality. Sebastian’s canvas size also plays an important role: the physical interaction with the painting is more directly experienced by him at larger formats.
There is no nostalgic looking back to a state before the clash between nature and culture, nor is there any illusion of a healthy world. His painting lives from instability, which, through its restlessness, breaks the hoped-for harmony between the “green meat” and the vastness of landscape, bringing them into a dialectical contradiction.
— From Antonio Pauciulo, Painter
Solo Shows
2019 Leisure Life, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
2019 In the light of a lake [Fluid Projekt], Kunstverein Freunde Aktueller Kunst, Zwickau.
2018 Green Meat, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, (MdbK) Leipzig
2018 Outscape, Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
2017 Sebastian Hosu « new images » , Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
2017 tough time , Brennecke Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2017 no 7, with Agnes Lammert in FF15 Gallery, Leipzig, Germany
2016 Creating Realities, with Georg Brückmann in Rutger Brandt Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2016 Menschen-Träume, (artist talk with Misheck Masamvu), KAAD, Bonn, Germany
2015 Natural Selection, Westpol A.I.R. space, Leipzig, Germany
2015 Sun Outside, KAAD, Bonn, Germany
2015 Backstage Painting, Bükü-Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
Selected Shows
2020 See You There, Galerie Eigenheim, Berlin
2020 i’m everyone, i’m everything, Kommunalka, Leipzig, Germany
2019 I‘ll Be Your Mirror, Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
2019 Body Forms, Galerie Rundgaenger, Frankfurt
2019 WIN WIN, The Purchases of the Kulturstiftung des Freisteetes Sachsen 2019, HALLE 14- Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Baumwollspinnerei Leipzig, Germany
2019 Friendly Wave, Tête, Berlin, Germany
2018 POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair 2018 with Josef Filipp Galerie Booth C15, Berlin, Germany
2018 25. Leipziger – Jahresausstellung – SILBER, Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei Werkschauhalle / Halle 12 Leipzig, Germany
2018 Das ganze Programm, Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
2018 MashUp V , Galerie Ghosh, Leipzig, Germany
2017 PAN Amsterdam Art Fair, Represented by Rutger Brandt Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017 Positions Berlin Art Fair, Represented by Brennecke Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2017 tough time, Brennecke Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2017 innere notwendigkeit, MNEM SYNE Atelier Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
2017 Paper Positions, Art Fair Berlin, during Gallery Weekend, presented by Rutger Brandt Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2017 Art Paris Art Fair, presented by Rutger Brandt Gallery, Paris, France
2017 Art Karlsruhe Art Fair, presented by Brennecke Gallery, Karlsruhe, Germany
2016 Ich dachte, Sie wären nur ein armer Schlucker!, Kommunalka, Leipzig, Germany
2016 Amsterdam Drawing, Contemporary Art On Paper, with Rutger Brandt Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2016 PAN Amsterdam Art Fair, Represented by Rutger Brandt Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2016 Creating Realities, Rutger Brandt Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2016 Green Meat, Bipolar Gallery, Leipzig, Germany
2016 Menschen-Träume, (artist talk with Misheck Masamvu), KAAD, Bonn, Germany
2016 Klasse Ottersbach,Bayer-Kultur, Leverkusen, Germany
2015 Sun Outside, KAAD, Bonn, Germany
2015 Natural Selections, Westpol A.I.R. space, Leipzig, Germany
2015 Painting, Triumph-Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2015 Backstage Painting, Bükü-Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
2014 Die Pferde sind tot!, Forum Kunst Rottweil, Germany
2014 Galerie de Wégimont, Liége, Belgium
2013 Drawing protest, GFZK « Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst », Leipzig, Germany
2012 G.U.E.S.T.S.3, Brussels, Belgium
2012 Paintball, Dubois Friedland Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2011 Plurality, Académie Royale des Beaux-arts, Liege, Belgium
Awards
2019 The Elisabeth Greenshields Award, Canada
2017 The Elisabeth Greenshields Award, Canada
2015 1st Prize 10. Kunstpreis Wesseling, Germany
2015 1st Prize ArtWalk, Leipzig, Germany
2014 – 2016 KAAD Stipendium, Germany
2012 The Elisabeth Greenshields Award, Canada
2012 Price Horlait, Brussels, Belgium
2012 Finalist Herelbeke Prijs Beeldende Kunsten, Belgium
2006 1st Prize Drawing on ecology, Satu Mare, Romania
2006 Mention in the National Painting Olympiad [Competition], Timisoara, Romania