SEBASTIAN CHAUMETON

– Sebastian Chaumeton

Whitestone is pleased to present Little Movements, an exhibition of the British artist Sebastian Chaumeton. On view at the gallery’s Taipei location, this exhibition marks the artist’s debut solo presentation in Asia and showcases over 20 works of art created by the artist in 2021. Inspired by the British children’s literature Mr. Men and Little Miss, Chaumeton personifies art movements as individual characters, including Little Miss Pointillism and Mr. Surreal, reflecting the relationship between art movements and their influences on pop culture.

Sebastian’s work tries its best to make social commentary on the issues of today. Through the lens of memes and internet culture, armed with whimsical magic realism, his paintings touch on various ideas from trolls, tweets and triggers to materiality, masculinity and morals. The backbone of most of his work revolves around context and its dilution in an oversaturated world of information and images. He plays with context and enjoys subverting meaning in unnecessary convoluted metaphors and memes. In doing so, Chaumeton highlights the viewers’ predisposed prejudices and assumptions of images they are confronted with. This concept is similarly reflected in how he creates paintings by using a variety of mediums, ranging from classical oils and acrylic paints to found objects, fabrics and sculpted elements. Not only does this challenge your perceptions of what you are looking at, but it also slows down the viewing process to counteract the immediacy of the images one receives online. He often takes these ideas further into performative video, self-interviews, ‘instructional’ tutorials and sculptures, deploying humour as a playful tool to layer his ideas further...like an onion.

Sebastian Chaumeton was born in London in 1996 and currently lives and works in London. He obtained a BA Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London. The artist experiments with several mediums, including ceramics, paintings and video installation. He has already exhibited globally, with exhibitions at Maddox Gallery in London and Whitestone in Hong Kong and Taipei. Collaborating with renowned brands including Laurent Perrier, Pizza Pilgrims and P&O Ferries, the immediate success of Chaumeton proves that this artist is here to stay.