Sean Naftel is an artist and curator born in 1978 in Birmingham, Alabama currently living in Sunnyside, New York. He received his B.A. in Sculpture and Ceramics at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2003 and his M.F.A. in Studio Art from the National University of Ireland Galway/ Burren College of Art in rural Western Ireland. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, of particular note: the New Bedford Art Museum (New Bedford, MA), Monster Truck Gallery (Dublin, Ireland), Artscape (Baltimore, MD), among others. He has participated in international artist symposiums in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, and Finland.
Sean Naftel’s work exists in three fold; one, as an independent studio artist, two as a member of PEACOCK, and finally as the Director of Roving Project. These three practices are relatable, fluid, and benefit directly from one another and have the intent to democratize contemporary art practice to make more accessible to the public. His individual studio practice focuses primarily on found objects. These objects possess inherent value as subject, based on their relationships to contemporary place, function, and commonality. He fabricates associations that lend specific weight to alternative interpretations of context, of meaning and of relationship. Echoing experiences of games, television, novels, daydreams, and other distractions used to numb the sharpness of global issues, cultural disorder, and personal turmoil.
PEACOCK focuses on the creation of environs that involve the mechanics of self-presence. These are manifested through sensible forms of human experience eating, drinking, playing, talking, etc. PEACOCK aims to assemble situations of dialectical pluralism, merging real life and the mimesis of real life in the gallery/institutional construct. This action transforms the audience into co-conspirator, their collective actions and interactions stimulate a reformulation of social experience.
Roving Project is a wandering gallery that occupies slack spaces, transforming them into short-term galleries of contemporary art. Roving Project’s goal is to bring high quality, contemporary art to communities that may not have access otherwise. It’s intent is to help diffuse some of the fear and/or resentment some may have towards contemporary art by creating a venue for conversation and education. Roving Project has held exhibitions in the USA, Ireland, Italy and Scotland, and has plans to become an open-source curatorial template for young curators that may not know how to go about building an exhibition (i.e. press release, media contact, website, stable of artists, etc.)