About

Sebastian May is a creative practitioner specialising in contemporary environmental art.

With a deep-rooted ambition to inspire positive change through creativity, his work explores the nuanced and complex relationships between people and their environment. It is profoundly influenced by nature and his upbringing in the countryside.

Sebastian creates beautiful collections of contemporary art that embrace environmentally-friendly ways of making, such as recycling and the use of found objects. His practice uses a diverse range of mediums, including painting, illustration, photography, writing and collage. With a long history of working across the creative industries, Sebastian also writes and teaches about contemporary art and creative practices.

Creative projects

Sebastian’s portfolio encompasses a variety of significant creative projects, including publishing an illustrated children’s book, Yellow Bird, producing a play, Lakavu, launching Art360 app to make archiving skills available to contemporary artists, and hosting a mini podcast series, Fruity. In January 2020, Sebastian founded Land Art Coalition to engage a global audience with environmental issues and help protect the environment.

Sebastian’s artwork has been exhibited widely, including shows with the Accessible Art Fair (Brussels), Arts & Crusts, Artspace K2 (Remagen, Germany), BobCat Gallery, Café Eterno, Chopperchunky Gallery, Departure/Husk, Milk & Two Pop-up Gallery, Pride In London, Studio73, The Accidental Festival (Roundhouse), The Other Art Fair.

With a background in branding and communications, Sebastian continues to contribute his expertise to a range of commercial projects across corporate, creative, public and non-governmental institutions, such as: Afiniti Ltd, AIDES France, Allied Irish Banks, Art360 Foundation, Aspect Consulting, BP, Bridgeman, CEEREAL, Channel 4, Consumer Choices, Google, DACS, DSM, EWEA, EuropaBio, FoodDrinkEurope, Intel, Kellogg’s, Marsh UK, Maersk Oil, Mobile Challengers Group, Medela, Network Rail, Nice Agency, Royal Mail, Talisman, Total, and the University of the Arts London.

Research, scholarship, and education

Sebastian currently works at the University of the Arts London, where his work focuses on the design, development and delivery of inclusive and equitable student experiences. His work emphasises engaging new cohorts of creative students online and collaborating with students as partners.

Sebastian’s teaching practice supports students in developing their personal creative practices. His academic research focuses on connectedness, creative collaboration, and storytelling.

Sebastian holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Kent, a PgCert in Academic Practice in Art, Design and Communication from the University of the Arts London (UAL), and a BA in Media Studies from the University of Westminster. Sebastian is a Fellow as part of AdvanceHE’s Professional Standards Framework.

Further information

• Explore some of Sebastian’s creative writing, interviews and more on Medium.com.

• Read about some of Sebastian’s recent academic research on the UAL blog.