seth van kirk

bio

Seth Van Kirk was born and raised in the suburban and rural areas of Troy, Ohio.  Growing up  different, he embraced introversion and spent much of his childhood in the open fields.  The farmland cultivated acceptance and offered a safe space for daydreaming.  Over time, the harvested fantasizes transformed into expectations.  Van Kirk earned his BFA at Wright State University and attended the Chautauqua Institution of Art.  During this academic period, Van Kirk worked strictly from observation.  The traditional practice forced him into the present where he reproduced the world as it was.  With good reason, during his MFA studies at American University, Van Kirk’s distant childhood daydreams resurfaced, compelling him to remember, acknowledge and to transgress his conditioned past. Today, his work is the result of multiple complex components synthesizing in order to genuinely convey the sense of place within himself.  Van Kirk’s studio practice resides in Brooklyn, NY. 

statement

Who was I then, who am I now and who could I become?

 Each individual encounters a multitude of desired and undesired experiences that build one’s character.  Every occurrence, regardless of significance, results in an emotional response that is remembered and repeated.  These conditioned experiences aid in developing one’s perceptions, demeanor and identity.  How does an individual distinguish the authenticity of one’s behaviors and identity after a lifetime of conditioning?

 An individual’s behaviors and identity are influenced by several controlled and uncontrolled circumstances throughout one’s ever-changing life:  birthplace, home life, environment, climate, cultural influence, moral and ethical codes of conduct, education, governing law, global exposure, religion, life-changing altercations, media, and now, social media.  Until one has become cognitively aware and knowledgeable of where one’s identity and behaviors have originated, they will remain borrowed, unowned and unchanged.  This self-generated intellection is a laborious ongoing process that includes, but is not limited to, reclamation and disposal of those behaviors. 

 Nowadays, the social media phenomenon has created a heightened sense of individualism where one has become enslaved by edited self-expression in order to acquire recognition, acceptance and validation by others. The ego has grown powerful and the struggle to achieve enlightenment has become arduous.   This movement has magnified humanity’s insecurities and humanity has become dependent on social media for ephemeral security.  This has complicated the quest toward authenticity.      

 The work is an attempt to comprehend these universal issues by sincerely confronting and documenting my personal experiences.   The ongoing dialogue between the work and myself channel sentimentality and nostalgia while primarily targeting the affects of sexuality: companionship, vulnerability, censorship, privacy versus public, morality, ethicality, guilt and shame. 

 Most importantly, the work offers the opportunity to understand who I was then, who I am now and who I could become.  This is the only way I can responsibly contribute to comprehending who we were then, who we are now and who we could become.

artists of influence

• Phillip Guston

• Robert Gober

• Felix Gonzalez-Torres

• Tracey Emin

• Nicolas de Staël

• Henri Matísse

• Piet Mondrían

• Kiki Smith

• Amy Sillman

• Cy Twombly

• Edwin Dickinson

• Leland Bell

• Louisa Matthiasdottir

• Mercedes Matter

• Ruth Miller

• Joan Mitchell

• Agnes Martin

• Arshile Gorky

• Robert Diebenkorn

• Stanley Lewis

• Deborah Kahn

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