Artist: Ivan Seal

Alma Pearl presents prelude, an exhibition of new works by Ivan Seal and his first with the gallery. The exhibition features a suite of new paintings and a sound piece. The title, prelude, often refers to a shorter piece of music, which may serve as an introduction to succeeding movements of a work that are usually longer and more complex. Similarly, the exhibition functions as a preamble to a larger presentation which will take place in the autumn of 2025.

The recited text of the audio piece is a looped excerpt lifted from Carl Jung’s “Memories, Dreams, Reflections: An Autobiography” describing his dream disorientation after the split from Sigmund Freud. The sample is then altered by the addition of the word “but” which functions as a hinge swinging between disturbance and submission. The accompanying 20-minute drone is created from the vocal recording and generates an immersive soundscape within the enclosed room.

On the walls is a selection of small-scale paintings featuring subjects sitting in theatrical, uncanny and ambiguous spaces marked by gradual shifts in shade. Always painted from intuition, free association and altered memories, the paintings of Ivan Seal turn traditional painterly styles into charged psychological spaces.

Ivan Seal (b. 1973 Stockport, United Kingdom) lives and works in Berlin. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Beijing, Milan, Zürich, London, and New York. Recent exhibitions include against the day after before at The Hole, New York (2024); Today Rots Through Tomorrow, Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles (2022); Three Rooms at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, UK (2021) and Generationgame at James Fuentes, along with museum shows in the last year at The Hive Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China and PODO Museum, Seogwipo, Korea. Seal is also well-known for creating the album artwork for longtime collaborator, The Caretaker, with whom he has also exhibited and performed visuals internationally, from the Barbican in London to the Lincoln Center in New York.