Seb Xavier (b. 1996) grew up in Hong Kong, where drawing his own
comics, painting and homemade films became his earliest experiments
in storytelling. That childhood, defined by a city performing itself at
spectacular scale, became the formative lens through which he has
since examined aspiration, image and the gap between surface and
truth.
By his late teens, those interests had evolved into photography, leading
him to England to study Art and Film. Following several years working
across fashion photography, production and advertising, Xavier began
developing the elaborate, narrative-driven tableaux that would come to
define his practice.
Drawing from classical painting, mythology, anime, cinema and pop
culture, his work combines visual spectacle with social critique;
reimagining familiar archetypes through the language of contemporary
life. His practice has expanded beyond photography to incorporate
illustration, CGI, practical effects and miniature sets, all brought
together to construct highly detailed cinematic worlds in which beauty,
fantasy and nostalgia often conceal something more uneasy beneath
the surface.
Shadows at Dusk, exhibited at Gallery 8, Duke Street St James's,
September 2026, is his most ambitious independent body of work to
date.