Shawn Hempel makes photos, paintings, drawings and media art. By exploring the concepts of the objects around us, he investigates their dynamics, including the manipulation of their effects and the limits of spectacle based on our assumptions of what our surroundings mean to us. Rather than presenting a factual reality, an illusion is fabricated to conjure the realms of our imagination.
His photos are based on formal associations which open a unique poetic vein. Multilayered images arise in which the fragility and instability of our seemingly certain reality is questioned. By choosing mainly formal solutions, he tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations.
His works directly respond to the surrounding environment and use everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point. Often these are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context. With a conceptual approach, he tries to explore a wide scale of subjects in a multi-layered way, likes to involve the viewer in a way that is sometimes physical and believes in the idea of function following form in a work.
His works establish a link between reality and that imagined by its conceiver. These works focus on concrete questions that determine our existence. Shawn Hempel currently lives and works in Brandenburg, Germany.
Shawn Hempel joined Fine Art America on January 12th, 2013.
