Lot #33: Paul Seawright

Paul Seawright

Untitled #5 from Sex Shop series, 1996

C-Print

Edition: 1

39 x 39 inches

Courtesy of David Salkin and Dirk Denison

Estimated value: $4,000

Starting bid: $2,800

Buy it now: $5,000

*Auction bidding: DARKROOM attendees are able to place bids in-person on paper ballots during the event on February 27, 2025.

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Paul Seawright (Irish, b. 1965)

Paul Seawright is interested in space and habitation and what they say about our social, cultural, and political landscapes. Though he is best known for his photographs capturing the aftereffects of major atrocities like war, terrorist attacks, and violent crimes, his Sex Shop series (1996) evokes similar feelings of desolation. The emptied spaces, though devoid of inhabitants, are shabby, claustrophobic, and harshly lit allusions to human existence, intimacy, and moral panic.

Paul Seawright is a Professor of Photography and the Deputy Vice Chancellor Ulster University in Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Glen Dimplex Art Prize by Irish Museum of Modern Art in 1997. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of the Tate, London; Art Institute of Chicago; International Center of Photography, New York; San Francisco Museum of Art; and many others. Seawright has published many books and monographs, most recently Beasts of Burden (Strzelecki, 2021).