Katja Seib: dear diary

The first solo exhibition of artist Katja Seib in London, “dear diary” features a body of new paintings, all created in 2018. The first group of canvases portray individuals inspired both by real life and fictional figures, painted on an original surface, made of rough burlap and found textiles, which permeate subjects’ texture and imagery. The real life details, collected by the artist in Los Angeles’s fabric district, become an integrated part of the representation, in which Seib plays with colours and light to create illusion of layers and depth.

A second series of smaller and identically-sized works on square canvases take inspiration from photographies taken by the artist of people encountered in the streets of Los Angeles. Painted more quickly and lightly than her larger canvases, she likens these works to drawings or open-ended experiment. Throughout her work, Seib uses recurrent themes and motifs, recreating a world that is alternately luminous and nocturnal, mundane and surreal and is characterised by a dreamlike symbolism.