Sebastian Gladstone

Club Pro Los Angeles is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition, Fantasy Playground, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Sebastian Gladstone.

Fantasy Playground is an introspective look at male adolescence as it pertains to our contemporary American landscape, where the insidious workings of the normative archetype of masculinity operates through hollow promises of superior ideals. Looking at shooter manifestos, chat forums like puahate and 4-chan, Gladstone delves into a psyche riddled with impossible expectations in two parts: the dark room (a video and installation), and the light room (paintings and sculpture). In the dark room, a nightmarish video of a journey through the forest plays on loop. The paintings and sculpture in the light room take on more literal representations of fantasy, pleasure, considering the socially constructed imagination of what life should look like. Through a childish, playful mindset and aesthetic, Gladstone creates a world of objects that not only reflects the lonely and psychologically- disturbed character of certain individuals but also considers the collateral damage of some idealization of normative desire.

Sebastian Gladstone (b. 1989, Los Angeles) studied Fine Art Photography at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and figurative painting at The Art Students League of New York. Gladstone has had solo shows in New York at Ed Varie (New York) and Sunday Gallery (Los Angeles). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of FOUNDATIONS, a contemporary art and culture publication launched in 2014.