Sean Hagan 

Contemporary Painter

Biography

 

Sean Hagan grew up in a suburb west of Boston, the son of two public school teachers. He studied illustration in college, and secured a job as an animator prior to graduating. Eventually he was called to the family business of teaching and has been a visual arts teacher at the high school level for over 20 years. 

 

In 2010 he began experimenting with painting on wooden panels and creating his own canvases and frames, which proved to be a turning point in his creative process. His subject matter has changed over time, moving from subjective to more non-representational, abstract work. His current themes include abstract land and seascapes that are created with dozens of layers of acrylic and latex paint. These layers are selectively exposed, creating depth, texture and visual interest. Similar to Pollock, Hagan is pragmatic with his choice of materials, often choosing what is available and at hand  and using those limitations as a challenge and direction for his work.

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In 2024 he began working with the de Cordova Museum's CALP (Corporate Art Lending Program) and has exhibited his work extensively in the Boston and metro west area. In 2024 and 2025, his artwork was selected by the annual Massachusetts College of Art and Design auction which supports student art scholarships, raising over one million dollars annually. 

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Artist Statement

My work is rooted in the ocean as both subject and sensation. Rather than depicting the sea as a fixed image, I’m interested in translating its constant movement—the pull of tides, the turbulence beneath the surface, the way water never fully settles. The ocean becomes a language of motion, rhythm, and force.

I build my paintings through texture and multiple layers of paint, allowing each layer to respond to the one beneath it. This process mirrors the accumulation of waves, currents, and time. Marks are scraped back, buried, and re-emerge, creating a surface that shifts depending on light and distance. Through this physical layering, I aim to capture not just how the ocean looks, but how it feels: immersive, unstable, and alive.

 

For my most recent abstract pieces, I want the viewer to get lost in the painting, for the composition to be set up in a way that invites the viewer into the painting and creates a space they can get lost in for a while, leaving the material world behind. When I can look at a painting and feel that sensation of getting lost... in the composition, the color and the movement, it is complete.