Sean Hopp
Sean Mathew Hopp (born 1970) is a neosurrealist painter, graphic designer, musician, and the founder of the experimental art and music collective Mathbat 1. His paintings are featured in public collections in Chicago, Los Angeles, and London, as well as many private collections throughout the US, Europe, and Australia. Hopp's body of work spans over 250 finished oil paintings, as well as numerous prints, drawings, and murals.
Biography
Sean Hopp was born in Oakland, California, in 1970. He moved around the States frequently throughout his childhood, and spent his formative years in Cleveland, Ohio. Spending much of his adolescence in museums and libraries, he became heavily influenced by the psychological revelations and obsessive creative process of late-twentieth century artists like H.R. Giger.
Hopp's paintings are created with a combination of oil, acrylic, tempera, charcoal, ink, found artifacts, organic material and bodily fluids. He claims to use both hands to paint, and frequently uses his fingers rather than brushes, in an experimental technique using modifications and "misunderstandings" of the traditional oil layering processes established by the early renaissance artists Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer.
Sean Hopp currently lives, works, and teaches in Chicago with his family and a small artist collective, and is an active member of Chicago art, design, and music communities.