This time we share in the workshop of Chilean artist Sebastián Leyton, about his work Drift (2023), a triptych composed of acrylic paintings on canvas, each measuring 150 x 180 cm. Inspired by German romantic painting and visible references such as the paintings “The Wanderer on the Sea of Clouds” and “Sea of Ice” by the painter Caspar David Friederich (German Romanticism of the 19th century). In his own words, “They serve as a basis for me to develop a pictorial work that establishes parallels between this movement and the period in which we live. By intertwining both works, I critically re-signify and question political-environmental processes, thus referring to climate change as a metaphor for a situation of global uncertainty, which encompasses more than just climate.
Leyton's work, recognized for its investigative and critical nature, uses painting as a starting point to explore other media such as the object. His works address concepts such as globalization, migration, environmental crises and sociopolitical reality.
He has exhibited at important national and international institutions, such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Staatlichen Kunsthalle in Berlin and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago. Between 1989 and 1998, he lived in Paris, Amsterdam and New York. He currently lives and works in Santiago de Chile.
It is currently represented by Espacio O Gallery in Santiago, Chile.
“In the image of the work, the predominance of the landscape in front of the solitary figure makes us measure the magnitude of the event that takes place over this fractured sea. Place where I place the monumental Tatlin Tower, as a great symbol of the utopia that emerges from the continent (reality)”. Sebastian Leyton.
