Sean Landers: Lost at Sea

Join us for the Opening Reception on Friday, May 9th, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

The Newport Art Museum presents Sean Landers: Lost at Sea, an exhibition that places the artist’s enigmatic and deeply personal seafaring works in dialogue with Winslow Homer’s maritime paintings, selected by Landers from the Museum’s permanent collection. Through depictions of shipwrecks, lighthouses, and turbulent waters, Landers explores themes of adventure, loss, and artistic immortality—questioning what it means for a painting, or an artist, to be ‘lost at sea.’

A highlight of the exhibition is Moby Dick, The Whale (2013/2023), Landers’ monumental 28-foot-long painting of Herman Melville’s legendary whale. This epic work anchors the show’s exploration of storytelling, bridging past and present, fiction and reality. The title, Lost at Sea, plays with multiple interpretations: the artist’s lifelong creative fixation on the ocean, the literal loss of vessels to the depths, and the metaphor of artworks drifting through history—either rescued by collectors and institutions or fading into obscurity.

By placing Landers’ contemporary vision in conversation with Homer’s 19th-century seascapes, the exhibition underscores the enduring power of maritime narratives and the ways in which art continues to navigate the vast expanse of time.

About the Artist
Sean Landers (b. 1962, Palmer, Massachusetts) is a contemporary American artist known for his introspective and text-driven paintings, often infused with humor, vulnerability, and existential themes. Over his decades-long career, Landers has explored a wide range of artistic styles and media, from diaristic text-based works to intricate figurative paintings. His fascination with the sea—both as a visual motif and metaphor—has remained a constant, reflecting on perseverance, failure, and the passage of time.

Landers received his MFA from Yale University in 1986 and has exhibited widely in major institutions, including the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Le Consortium Dijon, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His work is held in numerous public and private collections worldwide.