About
WHO:
Gwenn Seemel (pronouns: she/her)
WHAT:
queer artist and writer, feminist and free culture advocate
WHEN:
full-time since 2003
WHERE:
Long Beach Island, New Jersey by way of Brittany, France as well as Portland, Oregon
HOW:
with the encouragement and support of clients, patrons, and friends like you
I am Gwenn Liberty Seemel. My American father wanted to name me Liberty Bell Seemel—after the great Philadelphian e-flat chimer—but made the compromise when my French mother pointed out that particular ding-dong is, in fact, cracked.
Born in Saudi Arabia in 1981, I was raised partly in San Francisco and partly in a small village in France. Eventually, my family settled in the United States, in Oregon, and, for over twenty years, I lived there.
In 2003, I earned my BA summa cum laude from Willamette University. That same year, I launched my career in Portland, and I’ve been a full-time artist ever since. I spent the first 12 years of my career in Stumptown and, in 2015, moved to Surf City, New Jersey, where I currently live with my partner.
My painting style is easily recognizable—a fact that is confirmed by a tech company naming a photo filter after me. My mark-making has been evolving since high school, when I taught myself to use acrylic paint by making a copy of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. This video describes the many influences that have contributed to my style over the years.
Portraits are my thing. I paint people for commission, but I also I paint groups of people for the purpose of exploring a particular issue. I exhibit these groups in conceptual shows, like Apple Pie and Subjective for example. I recently launched a new series of portraits called Empathetic Magic. I also make conceptual work that is not portraits, like this children’s book for the child in all of us that is inspired by the research of the evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden.
Since 2010, I have been creating videos about art making and art marketing like the one embedded here. Since 2012, I’ve been writing books. I am the recipient of multiple grants, from Artists’ Fellowship Inc and the Haven Foundation among other institutions. My work has been written about by the art historian Richard Brilliant and featured widely across the Web, including on sites like Scientific American, Boing Boing, Newsweek, and Hyperallergic.
In 2014, I spoke at TEDxGeneva about the role of imitation in creativity, and I released a book that digs deeper into the ideas addressed in the talk. You Share Good reveals why I don’t copyright my art and why other artists might want to consider freeing their work.
In April 2019, one of my anti-Trump portraits from 2017 was supposed to be part of a group exhibition called Love and Fear at the public library in Montclair, New Jersey, but the work was taken down when some patrons had negative reactions to the imagery. After the censorship of the painting was featured in various news outlets, including Newsweek, the artwork was reinstalled at the exhibit.
“Our studio found itself much like a traffic jam, everyone gathering around to stare, mouths open, at [Seemel]’s work.”
Some recent interviews about my art practice include a feature on the Redbubble Blog as well as the ones on Studio Tour Magazine and Framablog—that last publication is in French! I have also been interviewed twice by Youngman Brown for his excellent podcast Your Creative Push. At the beginning of 2016, we did our first chat and, at the end of 2017, he had me back on for another.
“[Seemel] is an activist in many domains as well as being an accomplished artist.”
“Seemel is working to make a more empathetic world through art.”
“Seemel’s paintings are as complex as her subjects.”
In 2014, I created a 10 by 38 foot memorial mural for Kirk Reeves, a street performer from Portland, Oregon. A testament to Kirk’s popularity, the mural was featured widely in the Portland press, including in The Oregonian, on this episode of State of Wonder, and in a beautiful video which filmmaker Ifanyi Bell created for Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“The glimpses that Seemel has illustrated of the real wildness of the natural world [in Crime Against Nature] are fascinating.”
“The issues at play [in Crime Against Nature] are hefty and potentially uncomfortable, but the book itself is light, playful, and pleasantly un-preachy.”
Résumé
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
- 2019
- Empathetic Magic, Lyceum Hall, Burlington, New Jersey
- 2019
- Crime Against Nature, FIAF Montclair, Montclair, New Jersey
- 2017
- Empathetic Magic, MT Burton Gallery, Surf City, New Jersey
- 2016
- Crime Against Nature, PointCulture, Liège, Belgium
- 2012
- Crime Against Nature, Place, Portland, Oregon
- 2011
- Subjective, Art Festival Museum, Edmonds, Washington
- 2010
- Subjective, Pence Gallery, Bend, Oregon
- 2010
- Subjective, Arts Center, Corvallis, Oregon
- 2010
- Subjective, North View Gallery, Portland, Oregon
- 2009
- Apple Pie, Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts, Eugene, Oregon
- 2008
- Apple Pie, Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, Portland, Oregon
- 2007
- Swollen, Littman Gallery, Portland, Oregon
- 2006
- Mutually Beneficial, Concrete, Portland, Oregon
- 2005
- Public Faces, City Club of Portland, Portland, Oregon
- 2005
- Private Masks, Starling Gallery, Portland, Oregon
- 2004
- Snow Days, Northwest Sony Only, Portland, Oregon
- 2004
- Trickster Project, Backdoor Theater, Portland, Oregon
- 2003
- Critics Critiqued, Visage, Portland, Oregon
Selected Group Exhibitions:
- 2019
- Drawn To - Women of Contemporary Illustration, Higher Art Gallery, Traverse City, Michigan
- 2019
- Love and Fear, Montclair Public Library, Montclair, New Jersey
- 2018
- The Doors of Make Room, Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, Virginia
- 2018
- The Doors of Make Room, public art exhibition throughout Washington, DC
- 2018
- Corporeal, LITM, Jersey City, New Jersey
- 2018
- Women’s History Exhibition, Meagher Rotunda Gallery, Jersey City, New Jersey
- 2017
- September Show, Wildflowers Too, Barnegat Light, New Jersey
- 2015
- Implicit Bias, Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, Washington, DC
- 2015
- Widening the Cycle, Suffolk University’s SMCR Conference, Boston, Massachusetts
- 2014
- Art Beat Exhibition, Peoples Art, Portland, Oregon
- 2014
- Portraits 2, Mark Woolley Gallery, Portland, Oregon
- 2013
- The Art of Science Policy, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC
- 2013
- A Chronicle of Influence, Museum and ARTspace, Lake Oswego, Oregon
- 2012
- Image, Identity, Allegory, Dan and Gail Cannon Gallery of Art, Monmouth, Oregon
- 2011
- A Somewhat Secret Place, PRESENTspace, Portland, Oregon
- 2010
- Spread Ego, Place, Portland, Oregon
- 2009
- Mixed, Lewis and Clark College’s Ray Warren Multicultural Symposium, Portland, Oregon
- 2008
- Keep Portland Weird, City Hall, Portland, Oregon
- 2007
- PDX Panels, Portland Art Center, Portland, Oregon
- 2006
- inCLOVER, Mount Scott Park, Portland, Oregon
- 2006
- Boredom: I Learned It by Watching You, Portland Art Center, Portland, Oregon
- 2003
- Recent Graduate Show, Blackfish Gallery, Portland, Oregon
- 2003
- Senior Art Show, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon
Public Collections:
- 2014
- City of Portland’s Public Works Collection, Portland, Oregon
- 2012
- Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Portable Works Collection, Portland, Oregon
- 2010
- Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon
- 2003
- Willamette University, Salem, Oregon
Selected Publications:
- 2017
- Clark Hulings Fund Learning Portal, article by Gwenn
- 2016
- Enfant et Nature, book by Valérie Chansigaud with Gwenn’s art
- 2016
- How to Sell Your Art Online, book by Cory Huff with Gwenn’s career as an example
- 2015
- Acrylic Color Explorations, book by Chris Cozen with Gwenn’s art
- 2015
- Crime Against Nature: The Coloring Book, book by Gwenn
- 2015
- Widening the Cycle, exhibition catalog with Gwenn’s art
- 2015
- Professional Artist, article by Gwenn in the April issue
- 2014
- Painting in Acrylics, book by Lorena Kloosterboer with Gwenn’s art
- 2014
- You Share Good, book by Gwenn
- 2013
- Art Marketing, e-book by Gwenn
- 2013
- T(OUR), literary art magazine with Gwenn’s art
- 2012
- Crime Against Nature, book by Gwenn with foreword by Joan Roughgarden
- 2010
- Subjective, exhibition catalog with Gwenn’s art and foreword by Richard Brilliant
- 2008
- Apple Pie, exhibition catalog with Gwenn’s art and foreword by Inara Verzemnieks
Selected Reviews and Interviews:
- 2019
- Donald Trump “Make America White Again” Art Removed from New Jersey Exhibit after Backlash, Newsweek, Shane Croucher
- 2019
- Anti-Trump Painting Is Deemed Inappropriate for Montclair Public Library, NJarts.net, Jay Lustig
- 2019
- Anti-Trump Painting Removed from Art Exhibit in Montclair, Montclair Patch, Eric Kiefer
- 2018
- Surf City Portrait Painter Makes Public Art in DC, The SandPaper, Victoria Ford
- 2018
- Gwenn Seemel: All About Sharing, Studio Tour Magazine, Thom Reaves
- 2017
- Gwenn Seemel, Artiste Lumineuse, Framablog, Frédéric Urbain
- 2017
- These Powerful Portraits Show People, Bust, Editor
- 2017
- Art Exhibit Promotes Acceptance of All People, NJ Monthly, Jacqueline Klecak
- 2017
- Surf City Artist Shows Two Sides of Real People, Asbury Park Press, Billy Anania
- 2016
- Featured Artist: Gwenn Seemel, Redbubble Blog, Editor
- 2016
- Character craft, The SandPaper, Victoria Ford
- 2016
- Droit de Copie, Tout Va Mieux, Julie Guillot
- 2016
- Ce Qui Est (Vraiment) Naturel en Termes de Genre, Mr Mondialisation, Editor
- 2016
- Be a Great Storyteller, 99U, Jacqueline Lara
- 2014
- Of Mouse and Man, Willamette Week, John Locanthi
- 2014
- You’re Not a Proper Patron of Portland’s Arts Scene Until You’ve..., Willamette Week, Editor
- 2014
- Creating Art in a Series, The Abundant Artist, Cory Huff
- 2014
- Portland street performer ‘Working’ Kirk Reeves Is Honored in New Mural, The Oregonian, James Reddick
- 2013
- Both Artists and Scientists Observe, AAAS.org, Kat Zambon
- 2013
- Is Homosexuality Natural?, Scientific American, Kalliopi Monoyios
- 2013
- Love in the Wild, Apartment Therapy, Tess Wilson
- 2013
- Painter Illustrates the Diversity of Sex and Gender, Hyperallergic, Allison Meier
- 2013
- Our Crime Against Nature, The Quiet Lunch, Editor
- 2013
- Crime Against Nature, Boing Boing, Maggie Koerth-Baker
- 2012
- Les Bonnes Recettes du Libre, OWNI, Lionel Maurel
- 2012
- Imitation Is Still the Sincerest Form of Flattery, Tech Dirt, Leigh Beadon
- 2010
- HOWTO Make Art Without Getting “Ripped Off” Online, Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow
- 2010
- Paint by Numbers, The Portland Business Journal, Matthew Kish
- 2010
- 1 Project, 2 Artists, 10 Subjects Make a World of Difference, The Oregonian, Margie Boulé
- 2009
- Interview: Gwenn Seemel, Sweet Station, Welshie
- 2009
- Art for Politic’s Sake, The Oregonian, Editor
- 2009
- Leonard Portrait Is Flattering, All Right, Oregon Live, Mary Kitch
- 2007
- Faces from the Edge of the Earth, The Oregonian, Inara Verzemnieks
- 2006
- In the Market for Some Portraits, The Oregonian, DK Row
Selected Video and Audio:
- 2019
- Hip New Jersey, Lisa Marie Latino
- 2017
- Your Creative Push, Youngman Brown
- 2017
- Pink Power Tour Festival, Marie Guibouin
- 2017
- The Filmmakers Podcast, Damien Swaby
- 2016
- Your Creative Push, Youngman Brown
- 2014
- OPBWeb, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Ifanyi Bell
- 2014
- State of Wonder, Oregon Public Broadcasting, April Baer
- 2014
- Creative Insurgents, Cory Huff and Melissa Dinwiddie
- 2012
- CubFluffer, Gabe Flores and Mark Martinez
- 2010
- Oregon Art Beat, Oregon Public Broadcasting, KC Cowan
- 2008
- EZone, PDX49, Chloe Houser and Darcy Zettler
- 2004
- 10 O’Clock News, KPTV, Shauna Parsons
- 2003
- Artstar Radio, KPSU, Eva Lake
Selected Speaking Engagements:
- 2018
- The Business of Art Panel Discussion with Pierro Gallery, South Orange, New Jersey
- 2018
- 5e Colloque de l’Association pour le Développement Technologique en Éducation, Montreal, Canada
- 2018
- South Jersey Arts Panel Discussion with ArtC, Hammonton, New Jersey
- 2018
- Stockton University, Galloway, New Jersey
- 2017
- PechaKucha Night, Lambertville, New Jersey
- 2017
- 4e Colloque de l’Association pour le Développement Technologique en Éducation, Lévis, Canada
- 2015
- Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Beauvais, France
- 2014
- Creative Clubhouse with Maker’s Nation, Portland, Oregon
- 2014
- TEDxGeneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- 2013
- Visualizing Science Policy in 20x20 with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC
- 2013
- Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon
- 2011
- Oregon Art Education Association Conference, Eugene, Oregon
- 2010
- Riverside Brookfield High School, Riverside, Illinois
- 2007
- Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon
Selected Awards:
- 2013
- Curators’ Award, Festival of the Arts, Lake Oswego, Oregon
- 2012
- Emergency Relief Grant, Haven Foundation, Brewer, Maine
- 2012
- Emergency Relief Grant, Artists’ Fellowship Inc, New York, New York
- 2012
- Project Grant, Regional Arts and Culture Council, Portland, Oregon
- 2011
- Kickstarter, crowdfunding campaign
- 2010
- Emergency Relief Grant, Haven Foundation, Brewer, Maine
- 2009
- Emergency Relief Grant, Artists’ Fellowship Inc, New York, New York
- 2009
- Emergency Relief Grant, Change Inc, Captiva, Florida
- 2009
- Project Grant, Celebration Foundation, Portland, Oregon
- 2009
- Career Opportunity Grant, Oregon Arts Commission, Salem, Oregon
- 2008
- Project Grant, Regional Arts and Culture Council, Portland, Oregon
- 2003
- Member of Phi Beta Kappa
Education:
- 2003
- BA in Studio Art and French, summa cum laude, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon
- 2002
- Magenia, Ella Jaroszewicz’s school for mime and dance, Paris, France