The works of Sebastian Van Der Kooij start with the surprising elegance to the shape of dog pee on a pavement, a glance at the reflection of a tree, or a serendipitous stroke of a faulty brush that doesn’t want to behave.  

He proudly steals from nature to create works of intricate directionality that leave you wanting to treat them as a puzzle to solve.

The experience is at once jarring and soothing, but always in flux - and his flirtation with negative space acts as a calm antidote to the immediacy that the works demand from their observers. 

Self-taught and working between London, Cape Town and Italy, Sebastian uses impressions and scenes from his daily life. He chews them up, deconstructs their shapes and colours and spits them out as starting positions for his paintings. As such, he strives to stay close to accidental occurrences in life and reflect them back at the world.