An interview with 2025 Artist Resident Sebastian Bruno-Harris ahead of his group show opening on September 4, 2026 at Chicago Artists Coalition. This spotlight series aims to serve as an intimate introduction to our residents and their work through a Q&A-style interview. Interview originally conducted on May 20, 2026 by Dana Randall, Communications and Alumni Relations Manager at Chicago Artists Coalition.
Q: Do you have any common themes running through your most recent works in progress?
A: A theme throughout my practice for some time has been thinking and dealing with different forms of attention. I like thinking of attention as this kind of nebulous, floating point of view, which can be aimed inward, outward, at different scales, speeds, and amplitudes. By thinking of attention directed at everyday things in this way, you can find lots of distinct and interesting kinds of overlaps or through-lines between ordinary objects and scenes, and how they resonate with each other at different scales, or can be regarded in simultaneous, entangled conditions.
So, to give an example of this way of thinking through some of my recent work, I have been making a series of small assemblage sculptures that look like dried flower arrangements mixed with architectural/ architectonic miniatures scenes (think miniature timber framing) standing on small ceramic vessels.
This series began with an interest I had in this idea that the acts of flower arranging and making scale models have all these qualities that resonate with each other, both in their history and practice:
- They are both activities that involve the use of hands to place, arrange, and compose individual elements in space to build up to and orchestrate something larger and more complex.
- They are both of a miniature scale, but they imply a much larger space to inhabit (in some cultures and histories, flower arrangements were used to imply vast landscapes).
The essence of my question behind this series of work was, what happens to someone when they look at a floral arrangement (and all the associations that come with that), vs what happens to someone when they look at a diorama, and what would take place if the distinct ways one looks at each of these would collapse into one, what sorts of questions, surprises, or hesitations, would unfold?
Q: How has your work evolved since being in the CAC residency?
A: I’ve had many lovely conversations and gotten a lot of useful feedback from CAC cohorts, but I do tend to work kind of slowly, so I would say the main way my work has evolved is in my way of thinking about how to approach some ideas I’ve had less restrictively than I thought I had to or should have.
Q: What are some of your biggest artistic influences? Where do you find inspiration?
A: I look around me in Chicago at all the buildings and cityscape around me, and also when I travel. I look at nature, and recently at different kinds of historical documentation of flower arrangements, like Ikebana and Dutch still-life paintings, as well as works by living florists, architects, and artists. I also have been in a bit of a rut when it comes to reading books, but whenever I read I always find something inspiring.
Q: Tell me about your favorite mediums. What about them speaks to you?
A: I often work in some form of assemblage, so I usually end up working with many mediums, although for different series of works I sometimes limit myself to just a few. Some of them include; wood, ceramics, mold-making, found objects, drawing, photography, and video. I like the idea of finding relationships between different mediums and their functions or contexts, and trying to link and consolidate them into abstract, whimsical scenes.
Q: Do you have a favorite time of day to create? How does the time you find or choose to make influence your practice?
A: I work in the afternoon mostly, but that’s because I struggle to be a morning person. I would very much like to be one someday (Once I fix my sleep apnea!). By the time afternoon rolls around I think I am usually somewhat warmed up in terms of being active and ready to go. I like to try to get home errands or other things that need to get done for the day done earlier so that I can just worry about what the studio needs for the rest of the day.
Q: In keeping with our values, one thing we want to do is cultivate a community of knowledge-sharing. What is something you would encourage other artists to learn about? What is something that made a difference in your career?
A: I’ll answer this question by sharing one good piece of practical advice I was given once, which is to write a dream CV.
Basically write for yourself a path you would like to take your practice in. It’s a kind of useful exercise to sort of reverse engineer where you would like to be in X amount of time and a way to begin laying out a path to get there.
It can also be a useful exercise to get to know yourself better, by documenting where you see yourself and your practice in one moment, then reflecting on that moment in the future based on whether you ended up following that path or not.
Q: Do you have a personal philosophy relating to your practice or your life?
A: I would say that my main drive in regards to being an artist is to always chase what feels mysterious and interesting. In my practice I’m always trying to harness the feeling you get when you look at something ordinary and it strikes you as new and strange.
Website: sbrunoharris.com
Instagram: @sebasbru
You can view Sebastian’s work at his group show opening on Friday, September 4, 2026 from 5-8pm at Chicago Artists Coalition alongside Rob Croll, Nick D’Alessandro and Van Payne, curated by Taj Richardson.