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Brett Charles Seiler
Riding In Cars With Boys
January 12 - February 25, 2023
Galerie EIGEN + ART Berlin

Film & Edit: TABLEAU Films (Matthias Maercks)



Riding In Cars With Boys is South African artist Brett Charles Seiler's first exhibition in Europe. Seiler, who lives and works in Cape Town, where he graduated from the Ruth Prowse School of Art in 2015, has been part of Galerie EIGEN + ART's program since 2021.

Brett Charles Seiler's work includes elements of painting, drawing, installation and object art. Moreover, text and language, whether poetic, nostalgic or romantic, play an integral part in Seiler's artistic approach, and at times are even the central element of his works.

[...] In his paintings intimate moments takes place for Brett Charles Seiler not in a foreign place, but in his own apartment. The private space still conveys the preferred and safe retreat in which the protagonists interact with each other.

A particular feature is the parquet floor, which, with the plants and few pieces of wood furniture, is a recurring element in the spaces of his paintings. The colour palette is reduced to a few colours, black and white dominate the canvas. Now and then there is a dull blue, which is often used to represent water, green for the plants and brown for wood. These are not expensive oil paints, but commercial wall paint. For the black he uses bitumen, which is a mineral oil based product and is used mainly as a binder in asphalt or waterproofing roofs. This is a true deep black with extremely high opacity and shimmers in certain lighting conditions, so that even larger areas of this material reveal the flow of the brushstrokes.

Through titles like Riding In Cars With Boys or provocative texts in the works, Brett Charles Seiler bluntly describes directly his everyday life and the confrontation of an ever-repeated outing in society. Queer life forms a central theme in his works. Naked male bodies and intimate scenes convey feelings of passion and security. To understand, it is important to know background of the artist. Brett Charles Seiler was born in 1994 in Zimbabwe, a country that classifies homosexuality as illegal. To escape the danger of persecution Seiler moved to Cape Town in South Africa - the first country in South Africa to allow homophile marriage. [...]

Excerpt from Federico Brauer

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