Sebastián Picker

Steve William Picker Frisk
Born	January 20, 1956 Santiago
Nationality	Chilean
Occupation	Artist, Painter
Known for	Surrealism, Concrete-Minimalist, Conceptual-Figurative Art
Political movement	Talking Walls, 1990, El Iluminado, 1999; Aquí me Bajo Aunque Sea en Contra de la Corriente, 2004; Laberinto, 2005; Be Happy, 2011
Website
https://www.sebastianpicker.com

Sebastián Picker (born January 20, 1956) is a visual artist, painter.

Biography

Sebastián Picker was born in Santiago, Chile on 20 January 1956. His artistic beginnings are rooted in caricature, a form of expression that sparked his attraction to art at an early age. At the age of 14 he traveled to Rome, where he studied animation under the tutelage of maestro Paolo Di Girólamo. Between 1974 - 1976 he studied painting at the Art Institute of Boston and the Massachusetts College of Art. There, his artistic interest took a turn: he put caricature aside to devote himself entirely to painting, In 1975, at age 19, he had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 355 in Boston, United States. In 1984 he won the Barcelona Sister City Travel Grant, awarded by the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, which allowed him to paint for six months in Barcelona. In 1990, he won the Artist Fellowship Program, awarded by The Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities in Boston, to create the installation Talking Walls, which was exhibited at The Space Gallery, in Boston, United States . In 1991, Picker invented an ingenious mechanism to move puppets from a distance, a form that he applied in his work “En el Baúl de los Sueños”. In 2002, he moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, where he lived and worked for nine years; there he explored the terrain of terracotta and resin sculpture. In 2011, he traveled to the south of France to paint Allégories Sarcastiques, a work that he exhibited at the Maison Du Chevalier Gallery in Carcassonne, France and later in Paris at the Galerie de Buci. In 2012 he returned to Chile. In 2017 he exhibited “Antidotes Against War”, an interactive exhibition-installation that consisted of “eight large-format works with a clear graphic component, where abstraction and synthesis took over each canvas. Additionally, there was an installation that invited the public to interact and feel part of this proposal ”.

Picker has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries in France, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, among other countries. Some of his works of art form part of important private collections as well as museum collections. Career as painter Sebastian Picker is seen as an established artist, primarily influenced by the distinctive cultural milieu of the 1970s. He is best known for “his paintings that border between the concrete, minimalist art and naïf art”. “Making use of clear symbols and seemingly economical means, Picker translates the state of our planet and shows exactly what puts its cogs in motion”.

“Picker is recognized for his critical artwork that invites reflection on universal issue such as war, religiosity or the power of the media”. “His paintings always seem forsaken, rendering without a doubt the solitude felt in the face of the late 20th century’s disasters. As for the pictorial spaces imagined by the artist, they are minimal and at the crossroads of two South American pictorial cultures: the concrete, minimalist art and naïve art”. Since the beginning of his career there has been a constant in Sebastián Picker's work: “expressing personal and collective feelings about the political-social corruption marked by the misery, despotism and desolation present in modern society. The human figure plays a leading role in his work, “Picker portrays the human being - individually and collectively - with his little bald character who in turn looks like a child. The man in his suit and tie, who joins the system and loses his individuality. With a satirical sensitivity, Sebastián presents “man” to us as victims and / or perpetrators of his immediate reality, with the intention of creating awareness about the social problems that exist on a global level”. When confronted to his work… “There is an uncanny sense that they are not paintings at all but rather photographs of real objects, such as sculptures or even functional objects and real people” “This is due to the super-virtuosity of his technique, blending brushstrokes so well as to render them invisible to the eye, allowing only the textures of the objects depicted and the spaces they occupy to present themselves as the only reality on offer”. “Upon the realization of their true medium, there is a shock effect, one that thrusts the viewer fully into a world of visual and intellectual challenge and insecurity”. “Like all his works of art, his message is enclosed in the reaction and action of the one who observes it”.

“Sebastián Picker's work is characterized by inviting reflection on topics such as war, religiosity or the power of the information media”. “Sebastián Picker's work seems made of nudity, of stripping. A deliberate austerity that synthesizes order”. “The ontological clarity of his paintings is achieved with a kind of comprehensive innocence that is never a starting point but an arrival point. Round, definitive, essential light; simplified colors and concrete, introspective forms that announce his vocation for aerial geometry, simulate the effort to neutralize meanings that cannot fail to manifest themselves”. “Just as the manipulation of the great masses through information is a recurring theme in his work, social injustice is another”. “With the color palette supported by an indisputable technical mastery, Picker recreates a space where the original intention of art according to Heidegger comes to life: the work as aletheia, that is, as the means through which the truth is revealed. Now, in the rhythm of Picker's images, something more than a theme is observed: the viewer finds references to the world in which he unfolds but always within an ethical and aesthetic halo, always within the framework of beauty and appearance of this: of that truth made of beauty of which Kant spoke before Heidegger”. “In the color palette and the sharpness of his technique, Picker recreates a space in which the classical intention of art is rescued. The artistic work seeks to be a means by which the truth is spoken. In the rhythm of his images, something more than a theme is revealed, the viewer finds references to the world in which he unfolds but always within an aesthetic halo, always within the balance between beauty and truth”. Sebastián Picker’s images (of his paintings) have become popular and they are used around the world, internationally to illustrate videos, book covers and other publication. He has participated in many exhibitions, individually and collectively since 1974, in the United States, Mexico, Europe and South America. Some of his works of art form part of important private collections as well as museum collections. Picker has also created sculpture. In 2010, his sculpture Men Birds, made in quarry, was erected in the Plaza del Museo de Cantera a Cielo Abierto, in Degollado, Mexico. and written and published a novel.

Awards

• 1997 JURIED EXHIBITIONS IN PRINT, CATALOG OF THE TWELFTH OPEN STUDIOS COMPETITION.
• 1991 MASSACHUSETTS ARTIST FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM, BOSTON.
• 1990 ARTIST FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM, BOSTON.
• 1988 MASSACHUSETTS COUNCIL ON THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES GRANT.
• 1985 FIRST PRIZE, MACWORLD ART CONTEST, UNITED STARES.
• 1984 BARCELONA SISTER CITY TRAVEL GRANT.

Public Collections

• MUSEUM OF LATIN AMERICAN ART (MOLAA)
• ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM
• FUNDACIÓ VILA CASAS
• PLAZA DEL MUSEO DE CANTERA A CIELO ABIERTO
• EL MUSEO CULTURAL DE SANTA FE
• WELLINGTON MANAGEMENT INC.
• VGM CONSULTORES.