Sean Graham was born in Sacramento, California.
Growing up in the 1980s, the films of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Jim Henson were deeply influential to him. The idealized adventures, set in exotic places, planted the seed for his wanderlust. But it was the process of combining traditional materials, tools, and practices with non-traditional ones in making those films, that captured his imagination and curiosity.
In the 1990s he moved to Boston and worked in a records, books, and video store. Music, visual art, and philosophy dominated his work and social circles, and he began designing visual merchandising and promoting music artists for major labels. He moved to New York City to rent a live / work loft in Brooklyn, and attend university in Manhattan. He earned A BFA from Parsons School of Design, and found endless work with design studios making props for fashion and cultural events, and high-end product display. After moving to Ireland and working in consumer technology for several years, He travelled Europe and Asia and put together photography workshop tours.
He is now based in northern California, where he works across painting, photography, and sculpture.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I aim to create work that encourages reflection on our own presence; on perception and perspective; permanence and transformation.
My paintings use an abstract vocabulary, layering color and texture to create depth. The surface becomes a site of excavation, where I apply and remove paint with a flat rubber wiper, often within the same gesture.
To make my photographs, I use an analog camera to capture multiple exposures on a single frame, and to integrate the elements of past, present, and future inherent in the process of film photography.