Gregory Scott received his bachelor's degree from the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago in 1979. Creating works that blur the distinction between painting, photography, and video, he returned to...
Gregory Scott received his bachelor's degree from
the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago in 1979. Creating works that blur the
distinction between painting, photography, and video, he returned to graduate
school at the age of 49 to strengthen his knowledge of art history and
video-making. In 2008 he received his Master of Fine Art from Indiana
University.
Scott’s recent mixed media work combines traditional
oil painting on panel with flat screen HD video and archival digital printing,
creating layer upon layer of illusion with genuine wit and humour. As well as
exploring (and confounding) our assumptions about the individual media of
painting, photography and video, his works also comment upon the human
condition: humour, play, desire, identity, loneliness, and melancholy. Scott
often references or includes paintings by other artists in his work and in the
present piece he is clearly referencing British street artist Banksy.
Throughout his works he quotes from artists ranging from 19th century painters
like Manet to contemporary names like Banksy.
Artist Statement:
“I am a painter and a photographer. My
early paintings were often based on my photographs. So, the two mediums have
always been connected for me. I recently began to produce figure paintings with
tightly cropped compositions resulting in canvases of people missing various
parts of their anatomy - heads, legs, arms. A quick “what if” study photo of
myself filling in the missing body parts in these paintings was the “a-ha”
moment that led to my Impositions work. These images explore different
approaches for imposing paintings within photographic images.
Some of the artistic issues I am exploring include dimensional perception as
viewed in a painting vs. a photograph; the demarcations between photography and
painting; perceptions of photographic truth; and introducing the artist's hand
and imagination into the world of the literal photograph. What really drives my
creative process, however, is the desire to evoke intriguing emotional
narratives within beautiful photographs. The work explores humor, play, desire,
loneliness, and melancholy. In most cases the titles are an integral part of
the communication and have been carefully considered to add meaning without
constricting interpretation. Guiding all of this is my desire to make this work
accessible to all audiences.
The set staging in Impositions is often self-consciously visible. It is
important for the viewer to see the mechanical apparatus that supports the
canvas. The goal is to bring a sense of honesty to the finished piece and avoid
the realm of digitally manipulated images as well as the over-produced
sterility of commercial studio shoots.