Sedgwick Guth: A Keeper of Lost Constellations (Glass River Ahead)

Art doesn't just appear like a star in the night sky - it's built, stitched, and layered with intention. Sedgwick Guth's practice is a conversation between tradition and reinvention, personal identity and collective mythology. In A Keeper of Lost Constellations (Glass River Ahead), the artist interweaves traditional Pennsylvania Dutch craft with contemporary questions of self, establishing a visual personal folklore resplendent with mystical embellishments, celestial signs, and saturated hues. Guth reinterprets the customary techniques and symbols of his cultural background to include and dramatize queer narratives and voices in spaces from which they have traditionally been omitted. Through color, embroidery, and texture, Guth explores vulnerability and self-expression, creating gentle yet vibrant spaces for all to exist and be beautiful in their own right. 

Guth's mixed media paintings are informed by his heritage as Pennsylvania Dutch – an ethnic group of peoples descended from immigrants hailing from regions in Germany, France, and Switzerland. The Pennsylvania Dutch developed the rich, highly elaborate illuminated folk art of fraktur, which incorporates common artistic motifs such as birds, hearts, and flowers alongside written text in calligraphic and gothic script. Guth's work alludes to this style, while simultaneously applying its heteronormative and protestant symbolism to queer existence and relationships. He includes queer men (cis, trans, and those who co-identify as non-binary) alongside imagery and customs which had not been constructed to include them. His use of embroidery is a further nod to Pennsylvania craft and tradition such as taufschein frakturs (birth announcements) and mourning embroideries from the 17^th through 19^th centuries. Guth also employs the folk mysticism of hexology – the spiritual practice of creating hex signs as physical markers for healing spells and curses – throughout the work as protective embellishments threaded into each piece. 

Reimagining these traditions, Guth weaves new worlds around his interest in astrology, constellations, and mythology, using upcycled materials in his work to process and question his own navigation through a 21^st century world of technological pressures including social expectations, romantic and platonic love, sexual capital, spiritualism, and the definition of family. His models are based on those in his orbit, often fellow creatives, people Guth has interacted with or simply caught his eye via an intriguing pose. Grouped together or posed separately, their interaction is suggested but ultimately left up to the viewer – simultaneously connected and isolated, much like the performative curation of our modern relationships. These works intertwine Guth's own personal mythology with the perceived narratives created by his audience. Guth thus imagines his paintings as the story of the 'everyman,' with models as proxies amongst flowers, stars, and mystical symbols, ready to be interpreted and experienced in whatever way is deemed fit. 

Sedgwick Guth: A Keeper of Lost Constellations (Glass River Ahead) journeys through mystical spaces of embroidery, color, and esoteric traditions. The exhibition is on view March 14 through May 18, 2025. An opening reception with the artist in attendance will be held Friday, March 14, 6-9pm.