I work with drawing, glass, metal and simple optical tools to catch images at the point where they shift. Stretched figures, fallen wings, tilted lenses and jagged grids signal small failures in how we are meant to see. I begin with daily drawing and move the lines through scanners, etching and lasers, letting each step leave its own dents and distortions. These marks reveal the quiet structures that guide attention and shape orientation.
Certain motifs stay with me: eyes, windows, birds, hands. They hold the mix of intimacy and distance that runs through the work. Since 2022, I have drawn a pigeon every day and sent it to my sister. The drawings help hold a fragile relationship together through routine rather than ease. They also come from my fear of birds and the humor of being afraid of something so small and ordinary. The pigeons are slightly pathetic, slightly tender and the practice has settled into a discipline that holds its own meaning.
My sculptures and glass pieces prompt viewers to lean or refocus, slowing vision just enough for its supports to appear. I look for the brief moment when the eye hesitates and the underlying machinery shows itself.
Lydia Seaman
b. 1995
Exhibitions
2025The Jumble Sale, Jumble Gallery, London, UK
Attention without Object, Candid Arts Centre, London, UK
PEST CONTROL, The Haggerston, London, UK
Reconstructive Abyss, Cookhouse Gallery, London, UK
reARTiculate: Redefining Art & Education, RCA & Chelsea College of Art
Reality Check, AVA Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2024
8, Cookhouse Gallery, London, UK
Offenbare, Atelierhaus Prenzlauer Promenade, Berlin, DE
2023
Promenadenmischung, Atelierhaus Prenzlauer Promenade, Berlin, DE
2022
Away from Screen (with Mira Brunner), Speakeasy, Berlin, DE
art spring Berlin, Atelierhaus Prenzlauer Promenade, Berlin, DE
2021
art spring Berlin, Atelierhaus Prenzlauer Promenade, Berlin, DE
2019
Künstlerin Feature: Lydia Seaman, Atelierhaus Prenzlauer Promenade, Berlin, DE
Gemischter Teller, Atelierhaus Prenzlauer Promenade, Berlin, DE
the dollhouse, gadget_gurls, Watermill, NY
2018
Lacunae, Des Lee Art Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Slash, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2017
Constructed Fictions, Weitman Gallery, St. Louis, MO
For Play, Des Lee Art Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2016
Attempts Abroad, SRISA Art Gallery, Florence, Italy
Sophomore Show, Steinberg Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Awards & Projects
Clifford Chance Sculpture Prize, Shortlisted
UAL International Postgraduate Scholarship
Artist-in-residence, gadget_gurls, 2019
Hazel H. Huntsinger Memorial Prize in Painting, 2018
Eda L. and Clarence C. Cushing Memorial Prize in Painting, 2017
Associate Producer, She is Syria, 2016-2018
Education
Master of Fine Arts
Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London
BFA Painting & Art History
Sam Fox School of Art & Design, Washington University in St. Louis
Santa Reparata International School of Art, Florence, Italy