Spotlight Artist

Dylan James Seeman

West
Artist profile photo

At the Edge of Memory

Surreal desert landscape with rocky formations and cloudy sky in warm tones

oil and acrylic on MDF

On a Journey of Circline Around the Depths of Being—A tree in barren plains passed my eyes; growing wildly, beautiful and free.

Surreal tree with vibrant orange and black foliage against a dark, swirling background.

oil and acrylic on MDF

She was Like the Sea

Abstract painting of swirling white waves against a fiery red and orange sunset sky.

oil and polyvinyl chloride on MDF

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

 I don’t paint to reflect the world—I paint to unravel how we see it. The subject, whether boots, trees, or twisted metal, is never the point. The work begins in the disruption, where images start to slip and meanings unravel. I build oil paintings that live in a friction between what we expect and what resists expectation. Steel may ripple like cloth, light might fall where logic says it shouldn’t. Each piece asks: What if the way we see isn’t fixed?

My technique becomes a kind of thinking, one that tears at certainty and invites something stranger, more open. These visual contradictions aren’t errors; they are deliberate. They hold space for unmaking, for possibility. I am not searching for beauty. I am searching for a rupture in the myth of the visible—a crack in the lens through which reality might shift, just enough to let something new in.

Discover more artists from the West

THE MAGAZINE

Explore our magazine to discover exceptional artists

Open magazine with text, modern illustrations, and a list of artists on a pink background.
View issues

Call for Artists

Submit your work for consideration

New American Paintings is a juried exhibition-in-print and digital, presenting the work of 40 emerging artists in each issue.

View competitions

Your gateway to new art

Discover tomorrow's art stars, today

Two books on a wooden table with a modern decorative sculpture in the background.

PRINT + EARLY ACCESS DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$179/YEAR

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$99/YEAR OR $10/MONTH

Each issue of New American Paintings features forty artists selected through our juried competitions—presented in a beautifully curated, full-color publication. Subscribers receive six issues per year, plus exclusive online access to current and past editions. Are you a collector? Consider our premium subscription and receive our museum-quality printed publication + access to each new digital issue two weeks before its general release.