Born in 1979, Seth Adelsberger grew up in Emmitsburg, a small town in northern Maryland. Seth attended Towson University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in fine art in 2002. He has been living and working in Baltimore, MD ever since. Seth has recently shown his work at Sara Nightingale Gallery, Civilian Art Projects, and the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. His work has appeared in Issue #4 of Locus Magazine and New American Paintings #45, 57, and 75. Seth was also the recipient of the top award for painting in 2008 from the Maryland State Arts Council.

My work builds from the idea of drawing. The paintings are about finding a way to transform and elevate automatic/notebook drawing processes using full color. I played a lot of video games growing up and it was those early visual experiences that inform how I put things together today. Cartoon and sci-fi imagery also have a big influence on the types of forms that I use.

My work has always strongly referenced landscape. Although very literal in my formative years, this idea has become more about psychological places or mindscapes. Heads and eyes inhabit these invented worlds as self referential symbols of viewing and observing, echoing roles of audience and artist. I also enjoy toying with recognition in abstraction and the sensations caused by vibrating colors. Decoration and formalism are used to subvert tones of melancholy, paranoia, and menace. My compositions reflect the biproducts of material accumulation and the inescapable reality of visual saturation.

My most recent paintings are layered, washed out diagrams composed of simple, primary shapes. The Vision Quest paintings operate within a simple set of formal guidelines. Basic shapes interact, forming larger and more complex systems of geometric scaffolding. Each building block offsets the next functioning as symmetrical units in an optical game of balance. Architectural platforms fracture and disintegrate amidst a landscape of blips and bubbles. Facial arrangements and mask-like configurations emerge, as forms are mirrored and paired. I think of these paintings as 8-bit, not because they are pixelated, but because they seem like the beginnings of a new technology.

e-mail: seth.adelsberger@yahoo.com