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Seth Clark, Wanderer 15, 2025, collage, charcoal, pastel, graphite, acrylic on wood

Seth Clark: Passing Through
June 6 – June 29, 2025

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Paradigm Gallery + Studio is pleased to present Passing Through, an expansive exhibition showcasing the multi-disciplinary practice of Pittsburgh-based artist Seth Clark. For his fifth solo exhibition with Paradigm, Clark will be marking a new chapter in his career with an assembly of collaged paper paintings, life-sized sculptures, and a fleet of pastel and ink transfer drawings for a blowout display. Until recently, Clark’s work has been hallmarked by muted explorations of collapsing and distorting houses, forming together in a chaotic mass. His deteriorating structures have evolved into imaginative compositions boasting color, sprouted limbs, and movement to add a new layer of exploration to the work. His architectural forms are now walking, running, and leaping into different horizons while searching for new possibilities. Clark attributes this change to recently becoming a father and developing an urge to instill hope into crumbling houses and broken window panes. What was first a sobering reminder of mortality has now become a message of how, even in states of chaos and decay, there can still be enough joy found in dark places to pick up the pieces and create something new. 

Clark’s process begins with observation and photography, gathering reference photos of house siding, window frames, and roof shapes in varying degrees of deterioration. He has cultivated a library of found papers, photocopies, and textures that are essential during the composition-building process in his paintings. Clark is able to cut, layer, and rearrange until he has the basis for a gathering of buildings that straddle the line between fiction and reality. He then ages the structure with ink washes, graphite, charcoal, pastel, and acrylic, calling attention to the fleeting nature of time and the impermanence of materiality.  When gathering references, Clark is inspired by the look of Pittsburgh rowhouses with their ornate shutters and looming turrets that add character and history to suburban neighborhoods. As an artist who welcomes experimentation and change, Clark challenged himself to add more color and pattern into the exhibition, resulting in dollhouse-like moments that inspire slow looking in the work.

Neighboring Maquette series, wood, acrylic, resin, and paper

For Clark, becoming a parent inspired a recalibration of his artistic and personal philosophy. This shift has sparked a slew of new ideas on how play can be integrated into the work, signaling his changed mindset towards the future he wants for his family. Clark began to create legs in motion to his pieces to add a layer of storytelling to a usually morbid subject. Instead of houses rotting in slow motion, Clark interrupts the passing of time with humor and innocence that reminds his audience to find the beauty in what may be falling apart. This continues in his three-dimensional sculptures, which will make their Philadelphia debut in Passing Through. In Clark’s Neighboring Maquette series are imaginative forms that reframe hints of age like chipping paint or rusting copper, to be charming and whimsical. As they are free-standing sculptures, some similar in size to a child, visitors will be able to view the pieces in the round and search out the endearing patina that enlivens his sculptures.

The emotions of the exhibition come to a climax in the debut of Clark’s over-seven-foot-tall sculpture Mobile Home, towering over visitors and displaying the artist’s craftsmanship and attention to detail. The monumental structure is comprised of scrap wood extracted from his daughter’s infant nursery, forever commemorating the fleeting moments of her growing years. Through this piece, Clark redefines mortality not as an omen of doom, but as a kindness that, even in the most unstable environments, marks every second precious in his family’s life. 

Seth Clark: Passing Through will be on view on the second floor of the Paradigm Arts Building (12 N 3rd St) from June 6 through June 29, 2025, with a public opening reception on Friday, June 6th from 6–8pm.

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About Seth Clark
Clark grew up in Seekonk, Massachusetts, and studied close to home in Providence at the Rhode Island School of Design. He earned his BFA in Graphic Design, focusing primarily on print design and alternative typography. During this time, he discovered collage. This method of hands-on, spatial development took a major role in his digital work as well as his physical works on wood and paper. His drawings and paintings have shown nationally including exhibitions in the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art and the Chautauqua Institution. Clark was named Pittsburgh’s 2015 Emerging Artist of the Year by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Recent honors include Best in Show at the Three Rivers Arts Festival and publication in New American Paintings. He is the recipient of three Design Excellence Awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Pittsburgh and is a 2012 Flight School Fellow.

About Paradigm Gallery + Studio
Paradigm Gallery + Studio® was established in 2010 by co-founders and curators, Jason Chen and Sara McCorriston. The gallery exhibits meaningful, process-intense contemporary artwork by emerging and mid-career artists from around the world, with a focus on Philadelphia. In 2023, Paradigm moved locations and opened its new 5-story, 7,000 sq. ft. home, The Paradigm Arts Building, in Old City, Philadelphia. Open to the public, the building boasts multiple floors of exhibition space, integrated in-house design and printmaking, a dedicated events floor, and art advisory offices. With this, Chen and McCorriston expanded their vision for the greater Philadelphia arts community. The gallery is at the heart of this vision, anchoring Paradigm’s overall mission of increasing access to the commercial art world, supporting artists and advancing their careers, and collaborating with like-minded partners to build a more equitable, sustainable arts economy for all.

EXHIBITION HOURS
Thursdays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Fridays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Saturdays • 11 AM – 6 PM
Sundays • 11 AM – 5 PM
And by appointment outside of hours.

MEDIA CONTACT
For all inquiries contact info@paradigm-gallery.com

LOCATION
12 N. 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

SOCIAL MEDIA
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