Colt Seager (b. 1993) is an American painter who works in the lineage of postwar American abstraction——the color field and lyrical abstraction traditions of Rothko, Still, and Motherwell, extended through the recent example of painters like Sean Scully and Suzan Frecon.
Based near Chicago, Seager builds his compositions through accumulation: successive layers of pigment and form settle onto the surface, each one partially veiling the last, so the final work records the history of its own making without ever fully exposing it. Central to the work is the Celtic idea of the thin place——a site where the boundary between the ordinary and the sacred grows porous——located here in the Midwest prairie horizon, a landscape defined not by incident but by constant, gradual change: light, weather, and seasonal color shifting over a fixed line.
He accepts a limited number of commissions each year and works with galleries, advisors, interior designers and private collectors. Studio visits are available by appointment outside Chicago.
ig: @coltseager
Artist StatEment
My paintings settle, the way sediment does.
I work in layers——successive passes of oil paint laid down over days or weeks, each one partially veiling what came before. What looks like depth or atmosphere in a finished piece is really accumulation: color and gesture buried beneath the surface the viewer sees, still present, still doing work, even though only the uppermost layer is ever visible. A painting, for me, is a record of everything it took to get there——sediment rather than excavation.
I'm working within a lineage of postwar American abstraction that has always mattered to me——Rothko, Still, Motherwell——and in conversation with painters working now, like Sean Scully and Suzan Frecon, who treat color and layered surface as their own subject. What draws me to that lineage isn't a style so much as a shared instinct: that a painting can hold something wordless, and that slowness and repetition are how you get there.
Central to the work is the Celtic idea of a thin place——a location where the boundary between the ordinary and the sacred grows porous. I don't locate that threshold in a single event or image. I find it in the Midwest prairie horizon I grew up looking at——wildflowers and grasses shifting color through a season, rivers and tree lines cutting the flatness, sky and cloud cover changing by the hour. Nothing about that landscape is empty; it's in constant, quiet motion, and almost none of that motion is dramatic enough to call an event. My paintings aren't pictures of that horizon. They're built the way it works——layer accumulating on layer, change happening gradually and continuously rather than through incident——so that the horizon becomes a formal problem as much as a place.
The paintings ask for the same patience they were made with. They don't resolve quickly. What's underneath stays underneath, but it's never gone.
CV / RESUME
GAllery REPRESENTATION
Domestic:
Rhett Baruch Gallery,Los Angeles, CA
Tappan Collective, Los Angeles, CA
Lobster Club, Los Angeles, CA
GF Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
Belhaus, Phoenix, AZ
International:
Private Walls Gallery, Knokke-Zoute, Belgium
Circle Contemporary, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Escat Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
PRESS + PUBLICATION
2026
House and Garden UK, Painting featured in North London home designed by Lonika Chande
Architectural Digest, Painting featured in Hollywood Mid-Century home designed by Coco Greenblum
2025
Sight Unseen, Thin Places solo exhibition at Rhett Baruch Gallery named a "must-see" in Saturday Selects, by Jill Singer.
Architectural Digest, Painting featured in New York Loft designed by Neal Thomas.
World of Interiors, Paintings featured in home LA home designed by Garance Rousseau.
Elle Decor, Painting featured in the study of a Pasadena, CA home designed by Electric Bowery.
2024
Santa Barbara Magazine, Paintings featured in ranch home of interior designer Birgit Klein.
Est Living, Painting featured in home of Cayley Lambur, Electric Bowery Co-Founder
Interview, ’Substance of the Unseen, Matter Lent
Elle Decor, Painting featured in home designed by Luis Fernandez
Modern Luxury, Volume 1 of 2024
2023
New York Times, Painting featured in home of Charlie Carver, interior design by Maison Garance, styling by Rhett Baruch Art + Design
2022
Architectural Digest, November Issue
Luxe Magazine Chicago, Style Maker, March/April Issue
2021
Luxe Magazine with Michael Abram’s Design, November Issue
Domino Magazine, March Issue
Savannah Magazine, Painting featured in collectors home, February
CS Modern Luxury Magazine, February Issue
Interview with Ninu Nina, January
2020
Interview with Studio 6F
2019
Interview with Abstract Magazine
Success Magazine, interview on the creative process
Les Nouveaux Riches, Interview on abstract art
Artit, Issue No. 5, Page 51
EXHIBITIONS
2026
Private Walls Gallery, Knokke, Belgium, Group Show, Nature, February 28-March 28
Rhett Baruch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Duo Show, Close to Coast, February 27-March 31
2025
Alma Gallery, Chicago, IL, Natural Forms, Duo Show, November 14, 2025 - March 28, 2026
Tappan, Los Angeles, CA, Trace, Group Show, September 19-Current
Private Walls Gallery, Knokke, Belgium, Peace of Mind, Group Show, August 1 - September 28
Tappan, Los Angles, CA, Elsewhere, Group Show, June 24-August 4
The Finch Project, London, England, Wanderlust, Group Show, June 10-June 15
Tappan, NYC, New York, Proximities, Group Show, May 1-May 22
Rhett Baruch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Thin Places, Solo Show, March 22-April 26
Tappan Collective, Los Angeles, CA, A Show of Support, Group Show, February 27-April 5
2024
Tappan, Los Angeles, CA, Limen, Group Show, November 14-February 18
Rhett Baruch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Olympic Gates, Group Show, May 17-June 17
2023
Tappan, Los Angeles, CA, Between, Group Show
Pavilion, Chicago, IL, Two Painters: The Act of Abstraction, Duo Show
Belhaus, Phoenix, AZ, Bad Optics, Group Show
Rhett Baruch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Group Show
Belhaus, Phoenix, AZ, Off Grid, Group Show, March 10 - May 1
Mont Art House, Houston, TX, TRIO: Artists in Dialogue, Group Show
2022
Alma Gallery, Chicago, IL, Through Time and Spirit, Duo Show
Rhett Baruch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, In Good Faith, Duo Show
2021
Stahl + Band, Los Angeles, CA, A Curated Selection of Paintings, Solo Show
Studio 6F, Chicago, IL, RNDD Fall Gallery Walk at Bulthaup
2020
Dawn to Dusk, Solo Show, Hugomento, San Francisco, CA
Ware Studio, Evanston, IL, Works on Paper and Sculpture, Solo Show
Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark, Quadrilaterals, Virtual Group Show
Abstract Mag Gallery, Sampler Plate, Virtual Group Show
Lake Forest Show House, Painting featured with Studio CAK
2019
Abstract Mag Gallery, God Has A Telephone, Solo Show
RNDD Fall Gallery Walk, Calia Stone, Chicago, IL
2018
Through the Crack, the Light Comes In, Juried Group Show, Oak Park Art League, Chicago, IL
2016
Embodied Transcendence, Solo Show, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
SELECTED COLLECTIONS, PROJECTS, & COLLABORATORS
Palm Heights Grand Cayman, Marina Grand Hotel, Four Seasons Miami, Soho Home, The Bear Season 4, Convene, Sweet Green, Onni Group, Ryan Tower, Kelly Wearstler Interiors, Sean Anderson Design, Kevin Spearman Design, Christian Siriano Interiors, Artist Uprising, Vida Design, Wiseman Group, Maison Garance, Hyde Evans Design, Heidi Woodman Interiors, Florence Rogers Interiors, Jill Egan Interiors, Emma Beryl Design, Nathan Michael Design, Birgit Klein Interiors, Elizabeth Kreuger Design, Studio CAK
MURALS
2019
Mott St. Chicago, IL, Selected artist to paint the entire facade of the restaurant
Common Good Cocktail House, Glen Ellyn, IL
2018
Moveable Feast + Co, Wheaton, IL
EDUCATION
Interdisciplinary Studies in Art and Theology, BA, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, 2014-2016
Theological Studies, Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, IL, 2012-2014