Brett Charles Seiler, born in 1994, is an artist from Zimbabwe depicting liberated male figures. He is gay, which is illegal in this country. He is now based in Cape Town, South Africa, and aspires to be "part of the contemporary African art scene".
Brett Charles Seiler, Back Against the Wall - Courtesy Everard Read London and the artist
Not only is he a painter, but he also likes to present the craft behind his work, in which wood has an important place. He uses the words "DIY" or "carpenter", defining this creative process as his way of "queering" "man's work".
His work doesn’t emerge from activism but rather from a personal and sentimental testimony. Yet, when observing his art, it can lend itself to a political reading, including by the artist himself. However, he insists by saying: "I don't think of it, I just paint". The discovery of his universe, his life, captured on Instagram, reinforces the feeling of sincerity that emerges from his work.
Image from Brett Charles Seiler' Instagram
Paintings or fragments of wood emerge from his studio, which he describes as "incredibly messy". Back view of men, portraits, and objects are drawn, encounters are born or immortalised, and sentences take shape.
Hands play a prominent role in his visual universe. The artist highlights the political dimension of this tenderness symbol: "Something simple as holding another man’s hand in a country where homosexuality is legal is definitely something that I have longed for. So there was also an affinity to paint them in a loving way. The hands are quite gestural, they often hold something, or point in a certain direction and when they are hidden, perhaps this could also represent loss or restriction".
In this regard, he cites Swamp (I Once Dreamt I Was A Cricket Player) (2021). On this canvas, "a man wearing a basket ball cap is holding a torch that shines a light onto him touching another man’s chest and in this instance it is highlighting this tender, sinking feeling, moment".
Brett Charles Seiler, Swamp (I Once Dreamt I Was A Cricket Player) (2021) - Courtesy Everard Read London and the artist
His works represent moments, "taken from my experiences of my domestic life, of my partners, dreams, lovers, friends, afterparties, early mornings". Even though he lets his feelings guide him and defines himself as "quite an anxious spontaneous painter", Brett Charles Seiler reflects on how to create a relationship with the audience, as well as attract and intrigue them. He insists on the importance that his work represents "a tension that ’something has happened’ or ’something is about to happen’, so I believe they stay in limbo and hold a weird uncertainty to them".
As for the included texts, while some celebrate moments, such as "two men kissing in a sports bar" or "missing my boyfriend in the middle of the dance floor in bargain", others tell stories. "One is as follows ‘I dreamt of the gay liberation and Simon never died’, which is a reference to Simon Nkoli, who was HIV AIDs activist here in South Africa,’" he adds.
Brett Charles Seiler, After Simon (2019) - Courtesy Everard Read London and the artist
Brett Charles Seiler, This is a gay painting (2021) - Courtesy Everard Read London and the artist
“I would hope my work lives on as a homage and ode to the recognition of our histories, and also of my personal experience living post-gay-liberation. And perhaps homosexuality will be trivialised but I also believe it will take a while to get there and that the paintings I do will normalise that,” concludes the artist.
Gaining greater visibility in the vibrant South African contemporary scene, the artist is now regularly exhibited in Europe and the United States. His work has been featured in the impressive collections of the Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation.
Brett Charles Seiler, “LUKE, WARM” - Everard Read London, from the 5th of May to the 3rd of June 2023.
A first monograph of the artist's work has been released in 2023 by teNeues.
