Born Stavangar, Norway, 1986, lives and works in London
Sebastian Lloyd Rees is not to be trifled with. In parallel to creating found-object assemblages, Lloyd Rees is a natural campaigner and pamphleteer; the fragments of Americana talk-show legalese, which form the title of his first solo exhibition for mother’s tankstation, might suggest such …alarming…invasive…a violation…lawless…disrespectful… (2015). His work anti-agitates, yet makes its socio-political point with brevity and clarity, forging links between completely contemporary, urban culture and absolute aesthetics. In his immersive hoardings (monster-like modernist abstractions), Lloyd Rees finds a way to ‘politic’ without politicking. No longer barring passage, but creating discourse rather than discord; these heavy-handed symbols of exclusion transform into masterworks of quasi-spiritual inclusion, about which conversations ironically describe nature, space, landscape and painting.
In April 2018, Sebastian Lloyd Rees opened, Vacant Lots, the artist’s second solo exhibition with mother’s tankstation in our London gallery. Recent presentations of his work include: Vendor, Room East, New York (solo, 2015); L’albero della cuccagna, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2015); Open Source: Art at the Eclipse of Capitalism, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (2015); Bunkering in Paradise: The Rest Of Us Just Live In It, Artuner, Turin (2014). Lloyd Rees also works in ongoing collaboration with Ali Eisa as Lloyd Corporation, staging projects at Prada Foundation / Qatar Museum Authorities, Athens (2017); Frieze London’s Live Projects (2016); Developing Landscape, Pump House Gallery, London (2016); and Mirror City, Hayward Gallery, London (2014).