City Girl
Sean Pearl42 x 59 cm | 16 x 23 in
Subject: Abstract
Tags: London, Skyline
Original multiple plate etching, collagraph and relief in ink on heavyweight paper.
delivered to your door from £25.00
Sean Pearl
Sean Pearl’s practice uses printmaking to explore the tension between historical reference and contemporary life, questioning how cultural motifs and everyday objects take on exaggerated significance. With recurring British imagery, such as Union Jacks and references to tea and café culture, Pearl’s work critiques the ways in which banality is elevated through design, nostalgia, and abstraction.
Pearl’s approach to printmaking is as multifaceted as his concepts. He combines traditional methods such as etching, silkscreen, letterpress, and embossing with unconventional materials like coffee stains and burns. This experimental layering reflects his broader critique of historical processes, which he describes as “meticulous medieval regressiveness.” By repurposing these techniques, Pearl embraces their imperfections and unpredictability, allowing him to disrupt traditional notions of refinement and authenticity.
Pearl has described objects like a mug with a tea bag tag as a “rudderless vessel,” suggesting a familiar object reimagined as something unanchored, floating in a sea of abstract meanings. This metaphor reflects his broader interest in how objects are used to evoke a sense of history or identity, even when their connection to origins has become detached or distorted.
Through his inventive use of printmaking, Pearl examines how media borrows from history to frame contemporary life. His work highlights how reproduced imagery can serve as both unreliable markers of reality and magical approximations of daily life, blurring the line between authenticity and fabrication. By transforming the mundane into layered narratives, Pearl’s printsSean Pearl’s practice uses printmaking to explore the tension between historical reference and contemporary life, questioning how cultural motifs and everyday objects take on exaggerated significance. With recurring British imagery, such as Union Jacks and references to tea and café culture, Pearl’s work critiques the ways in which banality is elevated through design, nostalgia, and abstraction.
