Explore Sedgwick Guth's embroidered, mythic, queer art
On October 3, Scott Roberts Projects will present its inaugural exhibition, Someday I May Know You Very Well by Sedgwick Guth, at Artbug gallery in the Arts District. This marks Guths Los Angeles debut, featuring 12 mixed media paintings that draw from his Pennsylvania Dutch heritage while exploring themes of mythology, queer identity, intimacy, and reinvention.What makes Guths work particularly compelling is the way he weaves traditional craft like taufscheine frakturs and mourning embroideries into contemporary symbolism and storytelling. The result is a series of mystical, embroidered portraits that invite viewers to reflect on love, family, and the shared human journey of navigating tradition alongside modernity.Sedgwick Guth's Someday I May Know You Very Well runs through October 30 at Artbug in Los Angeles. Learn more at artbug.net, and see a preview ahead.21st century boxers (satellites posing as stars in our story)A statement from the artist, Sedwick Guth:"Most of my recent work has evolved from my place as a queer artist existing in this current realm of technology and social media, a land with no rule book Im an observer, standing from outside looking in, yet also participating in some of the modern rituals of said spaces, my work often attempting to somehow understand my place amongst all this information, particularly as both a gay man and a queer artist."lost in the stars"The use of figures in settings of intimacy is a common visual theme I often depict. I have been exploring the reinterpretation of many of the motifs, symbols, and techniques of my dominant cultural and ethnic background [Pennsylvania Dutch], applying the heteronormative and Protestant symbolism to queer existence and relationships. Im including these queer men (cis, trans, nonbinary) alongside imagery and customs which had not been constructed to include them."Apollo in the good guest bedroom (Shag carpet and a dutchy dresser in Philadelphia)"The inclusion of embroidery and sewing into my work reflects a nod to familial Pennsylvania Dutch craft and tradition such as taufscheine frakturs (often birth announcements), and mourning embroideries from the early 19th century creating my own personal folklore which ties into my love of constellations, astrology, and Greek mythology, as well as processing and questioning my own navigation of a 21st-century world of technological pressures (social expectations, romantic and platonic love, body issues, sexual capital, spiritualism, definition of family, etc.) The intent is that of a work saturated in color and the empowerment of vulnerability."how do i become a mystery again"My goal with these works was to depict the subjects in gentle and mystical environments safe spaces for them to exist and to be beautiful in their own right. These works incorporate my own personal narrative, as well as the perceived narratives that exist to each person who view and interact with the piece. The potential story of the everyman per se, a possible Shakespearean notion that can apply to now, as 'we know each other but have never met.'"changing for you (i didn't mean to, but i did)an invitationsomehow i felt it was possible, even though they're gone (handstand)