Colt Seager (b. 1993) is an American painter and sculptor based outside Chicago, IL, whose work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, World of Interiors, and the New York Times. Represented by galleries across the US and Europe——including Rhett Baruch Gallery in Los Angeles, GF Contemporary in Santa Fe, and Private Walls Gallery in Belgium——his paintings have entered the projects of leading interior designers including Kelly Wearstler, Kevin Spearman Design Group, Sean Anderson Design, and appeared in projects ranging from Four Seasons Miami to Season 4 of The Bear.
Seager's work is rooted in the Midwest landscape and the Celtic concept of the thin place——a location where the boundary between the everyday world and the sacred collapses. Each painting functions as a window into that threshold: abstract, atmospheric, and charged with stillness. Working through layers of construction and deconstruction, he creates compositions that reward slow looking——pieces that change with the light, the season, and the life lived around them.
He accepts a limited number of commissions each year and works directly with interior designers and private collectors. Studio visits are available by appointment outside Chicago.
ig: @coltseager
Artist StatEment
There is a stretch of prairie west of Chicago where the horizon goes on longer than seems possible——where the sky presses down close to the earth and the light, especially in the early morning or the last hour before dark.
The Celtic tradition has a phrase for places like this: thin places. Locations on earth where the atmosphere between the human and the holy collapses——where heaven falls close and the veil that ordinarily separates the seen from the unseen becomes nearly transparent. A mountaintop, a shoreline at dawn, a particular piece of music heard at the right moment. The poet Sharlande Sledge describes it this way:
"Thin places," the Celts call this space, Both seen and unseen, Where the door between the world And the next is cracked open for a moment And the light is not all on the other side. God shaped space. Holy."
I make paintings in pursuit of that threshold. Not to document it——the landscape is not my subject so much as my starting point——but to build a space where it might be felt again. Each work begins in construction: layer upon layer of color, mark, and form accumulating on the surface. But the painting only comes alive through its deconstruction——through what is removed, scraped back, allowed to remain. It is in that tension between building and unbuilding that something opens. A stillness. A presence. The sense of God drawing closer to earth.
My goal is not to explain the thin place but to offer an invitation into it. To make something that stops a person——not because it demands attention, but because it offers rest. A window held open between the ordinary and the sacred, between the grief and the glory, between what we can see and what we have always hungered for: to be connected, to find peace, and to be loved.
That is what I am painting toward. I am not sure I will ever arrive. But the field is still there, and so is the light.
CV / RESUME
GAllery REPRESENTATION
Domestic:
Rhett Baruch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Tappan Collective, Los Angeles, CA
GF Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
Belhaus, Phoenix, AZ
Mont Art House, Houston, TX
Pavilion Antiques, Chicago, IL
Alma Gallery, Chicago, IL
International:
Private Walls Gallery, Knokke-Zoute, Belgium
The Finch Project, London, United Kingdom
Escat Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
M.A.H. Gallery, London, United Kingdom
PRESS + PUBLICATION
2025
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