Paul Mpagi Sepuya (born 1982) is an American photographer and artist. His photographs focus heavily on the relationship between artist and subject. He often explores the nude in relation to the intimacy of studio photography. The foundation of Sepuya's work is portraiture. He features friends and muses in his work that creates meaningful relationships through the medium of photography. Sepuya reveals the subjects in his art in fragments: torsos, arms, legs, or feet rather the entire body. Through provocative photography, Sepuya creates a feeling of longing and wanting more. This yearning desire allows viewers to connect deeply with the photography in a meaningful way.

Early life

Sepuya was born in

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...

. He temporarily moved to New York to pursue a

Bachelor in Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

in Photography & Imaging from New York University's

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

in 2004 and subsequently a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in Photography from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Department of Art in 2016. Work from his master's degree was presented at the UCLA MFA Exhibition #3.

Style

Sepuya is best known for his

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

ure. Portraiture is the artist's representation of a person. The artist uses elements of art such as composition, line, or color to display the personality or mood of a person. using photographs of artists, his friends and himself. Another major feature of his work is fragmentation. Viewers are able to see parts of the body in Sepuya's portraits. Through this, he is able to create an intimate feeling of yearning for more. It is this yearning that allows viewers to connect deeply with his art. Typically his photographs are ripped apart, rearranged and taped to form a deeper meaning of the

queer culture Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual mi ...

as well as social and sexual exchange. His photographs show his interest in the history of portraiture and wanting to have black photography exist in the same time space as contemporary conversations. His photography sessions mostly take place in a familiar studio like his own or a friends in order for his photographs to show his presence and his relationship with the individuals in his photographs.

Career

Sepuya's series Studio Work (2010–11) continues the development of his sustained interest in portraiture and the intimacy developed between the sitter and the photographer in the controlled environment of the studio. The range and breadth of his work examines not only the personality and character of the portrait but the private performance that exists within the photographic studio. “My studio was private, but not a closed environment. Rather, it was a stage that I inhabited and opened to those around me,” he says in reflecting on the production of the studio environment and those invited to have their portraits made. He draws inspiration for his contemporary investigations of studio photography from the works of

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe (; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-p ...

and art historian and critic

Brian O'Doherty Brian O'Doherty (4 May 1928 – 7 November 2022) was an Irish-American art critic, writer, visual artist, and academic. He lived in New York City for over 50 years, serving as an art critic for ''The New York Times'' and NBC, as well as an edit ...

whose publication "Studio and Cube:On the relationship between where art is made and where art is displayed" both feature prominently in his early work. He has held a residency at the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

and his work is included in the

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (LLM), formerly the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, is a visual art museum in SoHo, Lower Manhattan, New York City. It mainly collects, preserves and exhibits visual arts created by LGBTQ artists or ar ...

. In addition he has published several artists books and editions with

Printed Matter, Inc Printed Matter, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit grant-supported bookstore, artist organization, and arts space which publishes and distributes artists' books. It is currently located at 231 11th Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of N ...

and has maintained a professional relationship with its former executive director (2004-2010)

AA Bronson AA Bronson (born Michael Tims in Vancouver in 1946) is an artist. He was a founding member of the artists' group General Idea, was president and director of Printed Matter, Inc., and started the NY Art Book Fair and the LA Art Book Fair. E ...

. Since 2004, Sepuya has shot editorial features for

I.D. (magazine) ''I.D.'' (''The International Design Magazine'') was a magazine covering the art, business, and culture of design. It was published eight times a year by F+W Media. History ''I.D.'' was founded in 1954 as ''Industrial Design''. The name was late ...

, Kaiserin Magazine, and

BUTT Magazine ''BUTT'' is a biannual magazine that features photography and interviews about alternative gay and queer culture and sexuality. Historically, the magazine has been marketed as for gay men. ''BUTT'' was founded in 2001 by Gert Jonkers and Jop van B ...

. His evolving collection of the self-published periodical 'SHOOT' has been sold internationally since its inception in 2005. Sepuya's 2010 publication, "The Accidental Egyptian and Occidental Arrangements," co-created with artist Timothy Hull, was financed through

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

. Sepuya is represented by DOCUMENT, Chicago;

Yancey Richardson Gallery Founded in 1995, the Yancey Richardson Gallery is a dealer of fine art photography, based in New York City and founded by Yancey Richardson. Formerly housed in the 560 Broadway building in Soho, the gallery moved to New York's Chelsea art district ...

, New York; Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town. His work is featured in various exhibitions such as the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...

The Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

, Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis, the Artist Institute in New York, and The Center for Photography at Woodstock. He has had solo exhibitions at DOCUMENT, Platform Centre for Photography and Digital Arts in Winnipeg, Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College in Memphis, Artspeak in Vancouver, and Blaffer Art Museum in Houston. Predominantly New York-based through 2014, he is currently visiting faculty at

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bot ...

, School of Art, Program in Photography and Media. Four of his photos are in the collection of

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

, and he was included in their Spring 2018 show "New Photography". As of 2018, he was represented by Team Gallery and his first solo exhibition there titled ''The Conditions,'' debuted in March 2019. Sepuya's work was included in the 79th

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

, in 2019. Sepuya's work, ''Darkroom Mirror (_2070386)'' (detail), 2017, from the series “Darkroom Mirrors,” 2017 was featured on the cover of the

ArtForum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

Magazine's March 2019 Issue.

Critical reception

Sepuya's work is generally critically acclaimed by art critics and enthusiasts. His work is distinctive in a sense that critics acknowledge his effective use of body fragmentation portraiture techniques. A contributor writer from

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

, explains how one of Sepuya's exhibits called the Mirror Study (2016), "has lingered with him the most" in that "the photographer captures himself photographing a cut-up portrait of a man taped to a mirror, hiding the camera and all but his arms behind what remains of the printed image (only the man’s arm)". An art critic from the May 2017, Fine Arts section issue of ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'' states that Sepuya's photographs are "as insistently reflective and formally refined as any being made today, can nonetheless proclaim that in his work, the sum total of content lies outside of the conversation about art". Sepuya "almost too perfectly encapsulates the current tendency to see photography as a game of mirrors. Its conceptually self-questioning strategies and fastidious-almost-to-the-point-of-finicky aesthetics account, in part, for why he seems to be a must-have artist of the moment", the art critic exclaims when mentioning Sepuya's proven track record.

References

External links