When we say Chloe Sells has been around a bit, we mean it in the politest possible way; the American born artist has travelled extensively and uses her experiences to shape and direct her work. Her most recent collection Senescence (that’s biological ageing to you and me) uses a combination of photographic negatives and post-processing techniques to create the unusual effects of colour and light that distort the tableaux of her handmade prints. Sells uses still life as the basis for her compositions, the decaying organic material is chosen as a symbolic substitute for her experiences of a place.
The effect of Sells’ creative darkroom manipulation is to increase the sense of the exotic, with the vivid blue of the sea, the warm reds and yellows of arid regions, and the shadowing of caves drawing from but not recreating her journeys. Sells splits her time between Botswana and London, where she studied for her MFA, and Senescence is being hosted by Michael Hoppen Gallery in her adopted homeland until 31st August.
All © Chloe Sells,
courtesy of Michael Hoppen Contemporary
