CHLOE SELLS: ONLINE EXHIBITION

A swamp is an ever-changing orchestra of life. The form of the swamplands changes yearly with the inundation of flood waters. An island that was here this year is gone the next. Some months the air is feverish and laden with insects and others it is as crisp as a Granny Smith apple and the waters are covered with ice crystals.  No matter the relentless changes, in the Okavango Delta of Botswana, a natural, unadulterated balance exists.

 

In her on-going work about the Okavango Swamps, Chloe Sells photographs the bush with a large format camera and through her darkroom and studio process layers the images to make colourful compositions. The current works radiate with psychedelic mark making both echoing and animating the form of the landscape and the subtle life that exists within it.

 

Michael Hoppen Gallery is delighted to announce our online summer exhibition of new works by Chloe Sells.  These jewel-like abstract contact prints will be available to purchase from the gallery website and available to view during the summer.

 

Chloe Sells divides her time between her home in Botswana, Africa, where she photographs with a large format camera, and London, England, where she hand processes and prints her work. Each of her artworks is the result of her in-depth manipulation of the printing process in the darkroom, at once physical, spontaneous and deliberate. Her works are undeniably painterly and immediate, pushing the boundaries of process within the photographic medium.

 

Sells attended the Rhode Island School of Design, from which she graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography. She received her Masters in Fine Art from Central St. Martins in September 2011. Over the last twelve years she has lived and photographed on three continents, Asia, North America and Africa, and this travel has been integral to her artwork.