Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
Welcome to 15 Questions With…, an interview series in which art writer Gary Grimes picks the brains of artists, curators and other creatives to understand what makes them tick through a series of quick fire questions. This series aims to showcase the varying approaches creatives take to making art and how their relationships to the so-called art world differ, but also reveal what unifies those responsible for the art we love.
Born and based in Düsseldorf, Sebastian Riemer seeks to question the photographic medium's claim to objectivity, durability and the documentary. The artist often works with found photographs, which he enlarges in high resolution and thereby transfers into new viewing contexts. In this way, he focuses, for example, on painterly qualities, the effect of materiality and states of decay of the photographic material, which he calls "photographic ruins". His artistic approach enables image scientific, media reflexive as well as aesthetic examinations of the visual medium.
From 4 December 2025 through 31 January 2026, his solo exhibition, New Old Stock, is on view at Gathering in London. The show comprises new and existing works, both depicting the artist’s ongoing exploration into “photographic ruins”.
1. What is your earliest memory of a work of art?
I remember a Russian Orthodox icon, showing a reproduction of Christ Pantocrator, in my children’s room. It was mounted on a wooden panel, approximately 30 x 24 x 1 cm, with a triangular hanging hook that stood out in the middle of the upper edge.
2. Where do you turn to when you're in need of inspiration?
Usually, when I observe things in my surroundings closely, I see so much more to gain than one can process in an artist’s lifetime.
3. What do you like to do when you need to take a break from your practice?
Lunch. Coffee and cake. Both best with friends.
4. Who is your favourite artist?
It changes all the time. I get excited about a new discovery, but also when I revisit older ones. There is never just one at any given time. It’s like being in a pack.
5. What's the biggest crime an artist can commit?
Murder.
6. Which gallery or museum should everyone try to visit at least once in their life?
The one closest to where they grew up.
7. What is the worst thing about the art world?
Queuing.
8. Whose opinions on art do you actually care about?
My close friends’ opinions.
9. What trend in art makes you roll your eyes?
All of them.
10. Who are the last three musical artists you listened to?
According to my music app: Nicholas Britell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and The Velvet Underground.
11. What's your favourite colour and why?
Printed grey. It’s very noisy, contains all colours and doesn’t distract.
12. Is there an artistic skill you wish you were better at, and why?
Acceptance. For me, that is the ultimate skill in photography. I’m practising daily to improve.
13. What can you tell us about your show, New Old Stock, that's currently on view at Gathering?
This is my first solo exhibition in the UK, bringing together three series that have never been shown together before. Each series brings with it a way to reimagine photographs. The show presents discarded and unwanted post-archival material, reimagined, or reconstructed – images that have been abandoned or separated from their original purpose. By piecing them back together, reworking them, or shifting their context, the photographs change, but the core of what they once were still comes through. The show looks at how something left behind can be given a different kind of life and a new story.
14. Which piece in the show took the longest to perfect and why?
All the pieces were quickly executed. No production took longer than a fortnight, although the research and development took years.
15. What impression do you hope people get after seeing your show?
I’d like to raise people’s awareness towards all the reasons it still matters to hang and experience objects formerly known as photographs on a wall in a screen-saturated world full of animated and interchangeable content.
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