My work originates from my place as a queer artist existing in our current realm of technology and social media - I’m an observer, standing from outside looking in, yet also participating in some of the modern rituals of said spaces. My work often attempting to understand my place amongst all this information, particularly as both a gay man and a queer artist.
In my work I place subjects in settings of intimacy and narrative mystiscm, a reinterpretation of many of the symbols and techniques of my cultural background (Pennsylvania Dutch), applying the heteronormative and protestant symbolism to queer existence and relationships. I’m placing queer subjects alongside imagery and customs which had not been constructed to include them. The use of embroidery and stitching into my work reflects a nod to Pennsylvania Dutch craft and tradition such as taufscheine frakturs and mourning embroideries from the 17th -19th centuries. Creating my own personal folklore which ties into my love of constellations, astrology, and mythology; as well as processing and questioning my own navigation of a 21st century world of technological pressures (social expectations, romantic & platonic love, body issues, sexual capital, spiritualism, definition of family, etc.) The intent is that of a work saturated in color, with a focus on the empowerment of vulnerability.
My goal with these works is to depict the subjects in gentle and mystical environments. Safe spaces for them to exist and to be beautiful in their own right. These works incorporate my own personal narrative, as well as the perceived narratives that exist to each person who view and interact with the piece. The potential story of the ‘everyman’ per se, a possible Shakespearean notion that can apply to now, as “we know each other but have never met”.
IG - sedgwick_guth
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 His Voice Drifted Softly Through The Warmth Of My Daydreams, Treadwell Gallery,
Provincetown, MA
2022 My Electric Self When I’m with You, Treadwell Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Enter my Dreams Again and Again, Gallery 19, Chicago, IL
2021 Temporary Lovers, Treadwell Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Love Rush, Iridian Gallery, Richmond, VA
2018 Boys of Summer, Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, Allentown, PA
2017 Cockery, Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, Allentown, PA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Interlaced: the fabric of art, Childs Gallery, Boston, MA
Tenuous Threads, The Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY
2021 Closet to Quarantine: Queer art then and now, Childs Gallery, Boston, MA
Guth & Mikula, Maestri Gallery, Dallas, TX
2020 LOVE MY WAY, Villa Noailles, Hyeres, France
Art of the State 2020, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA
2019 Stonewall @ 50, Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Inclusionary Vision, Maestri Gallery – Dallas, TX
2018 Art Attack!, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Toronto, Canada
Art of the State 2018, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA
Into the Woods, Da Vinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
Queer Frames of Resistence, The William Way LGBT Community Center Philadelphia, PA
2017 Art of the State 2017, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA,
1st place – works on paper
2017 Family, The William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia, PA
1st place - best in show