Sebastian Hosu

The vigorous brushstrokes of Sebastian Hosu’s canvases and the fiercely bold lines of his charcoal drawings oscillate subtly on the border between representational realism and abstract depiction. His monumental figures - sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs or larger groups - become part of the landscape that surrounds them.

 

Hosu's paintings bring to life the entire genealogy and toolset of the history of European landscape painting during the 19th and 20th centuries. The artist not only seeks to explore the role that natural space can play in artistic expression, but he is also equally concerned with the historical significance of figuration in painting. His works attempt to dissolve the hierarchy of genres that has been fossilised over the centuries between figurative and landscape art.

 

According to the artist, the basic reference of his art is almost exclusively the relationship between figures and landscapes (natural space). He is interested in the magical moment when a figure moving in the landscape becomes almost one with the natural space and seemingly dissolves into its surrounding environment. Hosu strives to represent and express this endless fusion of figures and landscapes. In his compositions, figures and landscapes not only merge, but also enter into a symbiotic relationship with each other where the existence of one is unimaginable without the other.

 

Sebastian Hosu (b. 1988, Romania) lives and works in Leipzig, Germany. He studied at the University of Art and Design in Romania and later completed his Master’s degree at Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. His work is included in various private and public collections in Germany, such as the Hildebrand Collection (G2 Kunsthalle), the Collection of the MdbK (Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig), and the Dresden State Art Collections.