On view from October 21- December 4 at Gallery1515, POLITICIZED will feature a selection of paintings by self-taught Washington, D.C.-based artist Matt Sesow. The exhibition focuses on the US election and politics around the world. Sesow’s expressive painting style is influenced by street art, politics, and current events. His symbolically rich compositions use raw, rapid, and expressive techniques, often depicting figurative scenes, dense with detail and fraught with emotion. When Sesow was 8 years old he was struck by the propeller of a landing airplane, ultimately losing his dominant hand as a result of the accident. Untrained and self-taught, Sesow started painting in 1995 as an emotional reaction to his disability and was quickly discovered by collectors of folk, visionary and outsider art.
His work has been widely exhibited, most notably at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA, the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC and galleries in France, Australia and Barcelona. In September of 2013, Sesow was honored to have his work featured on a postage stamp issued by the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) along with artists such as Chuck Close. Article in The Washington Post "The saga of Matt Sesow: How a one-handed artist is seizing D.C.’s art world The symbols and icons of Matt Sesow's paintings |