Scott Anderson
Artist Statement
The subject matter in my work reflects my deep fascination of hero worship, cults, ritualistic behavior, utopias, and other systems designed by human kind to provide a culture with greater purpose. My simultaneous reverence and skepticism of such systems is demonstrated through the craft of painting - a discipline that has its own set of champions, followers, agnostics, and heretics.
My paintings begin with a reflection on archetypes from the history of painting, such as the pastoral landscape, the religious narrative, or the glorifying portrait. A core image is developed using a patchwork of approaches and techniques, from memory to photo-based source material. I establish a space and then populate it with only marginal regard for logic, the known laws of physics, or purity of painterly approach, siding instead with loosely ordered chaos, and the uncanny.
The narratives implied in my paintings waver between fantasies of escape and a post-apocalyptic meltdown. At first glance the paintings appear to depict a utopian vision of some unidentified time period, and in the same way that many utopian programs play themselves out, the narratives feed back on themselves in a contradictory loop. I think of the stories told in my paintings as being analogous to various moments of cultural and political upheaval, such as the naïve embrace of unchecked capitalism in the American Revolution, and the inevitable fascism of the Russian Revolution. Both examples demonstrate how utopian projects, originally designed with the best of intentions, contain within them the blueprints for their own demise.
My paintings give the viewer occasion for the exploration of the idea of cultivating a new independent identity from the wastes of old tropes and ways. Notions of aftermath, rebirth, revolution, and the post-apocalypse also function as metaphors for the condition of contemporary painting. One often hears of the “death of painting,” or the “end of history.” I have acknowledged those facts, and see in them as opportunity to rebuild from the rubble.
BORN
1973 Urbana, Illinois
Lives and works in Chicago
EDUCATION
2003 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [ m.f.a. ]
1997 Kansas State University [ b.f.a. ]
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 "Join or Die: New Paintings" Sutx Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Rendezvous Point, Light and Sie Gallery, Dallas, TX (Catalog)
Misiisto, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
2007 Guru, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Leipzig, Germany
2005 Re Krei, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
Aneksi, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2004 Neo Pejzago, Galerie Jean-Luc and Takako Richard, Paris, France (Catalog)
2003 12x12, New Artists New Work, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, OH
New works on paper, Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago, IL.
2001 Esperanto for Forage, Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago, IL
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009 Beatutiful/Decay A to Z, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Landscape Affected, Haggerty University Gallery, University of Dallas, Dallas, TX
2008 Future Tense: Reshaping the Landsdape, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY, Curators: Dede Young and Avis Larson
Wild Kingdom, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
West, Wester, Westest, Fecalface Dot Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Curator: Ryan Christian
Apocalypse Yesterday, Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles, CA, Curator: David Pagel
New Work From Chicago, Road Agent Gallery, Dallas, TX
2007 Me and My Katamari, Lisa Boyle Gallery, Chicago, IL
featured artist, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Voltashow 03, Basel Switzerland
2006 Mutiny!, Happy Lion Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Curator: David Hunt
Homecoming, Epstein Gallery, Leawood, KS/Johnson County Community
College, Overland Park, KS, Curators: Bruce Hartman and Kent Smith
Après moi, le deluge, exhibition with Angelina Gualdoni, Adam Civanovic, Steve Kroner, FA Projects, London, U.K.
We Build the Worlds Inside Our Heads, Freight & Volume Gallery, New York, NY
New Works, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
2005 Strange Fictions, Tarble Art Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
Curator: Chris Kahler. (Brochure)
2004 Architecture Untethered, Numark Gallery, Washington, D.C. (Brochure)
Two-person exhibition with Aaron Baker, Community College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, NV (Brochure)
2004 The Babble of Towers, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA, Curator: Orion Wertz. (Brochure)
Mental Space, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Madison, Wisconsin, Curator: JJ Murphy
2003 Post-Digital Painting, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Academy, Bloomfield Hills, MI. Curator: Joe Houston. (Catalog)
Painting!, University Art Galleries, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI. Curator: Julia Morrisroe. (Catalog)
2002 Painting and Illustration, Luckman Gallery, California State University at
L.A., Los Angeles, CA. Curator: Adam Ross
Social Landscape, P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York, NY.
Nubo Wave Map Space Bubble, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Curator: Barry Blinderman. (Brochure)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Artner, Alan G., Chicago Tribune, March 21, 2008 (image)
Artner, Alan G., “Scott Anderson’s Odd Beauty,” Chicago Tribune
April 18, 2003 (image)
Artner, Alan G., “Gallery Season Guide,” Chicago Tribune, September 2001
Artner, Alan G., “Visions by four. The theme is apocalypse, the art, Inventive.”
Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2001, p.32
Azizian, Carol, “Cranbrook exhibit driven by technology,” Flint Journal,
January 3, 2003
Biro, Matthew, Contemporary, issue #69, 2004, p.77
Blinderman, Barry, “Painting in the Digital Age,” essay for 4th Annual Miami
University Young Painters exhibition, January 2003
Blinderman, Barry, essay from “Nubo Wave Map Space Bubble,” brochure,
January 2002 (image)
Bon Magazine, “Young Masters,” Fall 2007, pp. 57, 60, 64, (images)
Brunetti, John, “Scott Anderson and Cyber-Landscape,” The C.A.C.A. Review,
October 2003, p. 3
Camper, Fred, “Imperfect Worlds,” Chicago Reader, April 11, 2003,
pp. 26 – 27 (image)
Champaign-Urbana Octopus, April 13-19, 2001 (cover image)
Chomin, Linda Ann, “Post-Digital exhibit captures painting ‘of the moment’,”
Observer & Eccentric, March 6, 2003
Cohen, Keri Guten, “Artists use technology in paintings,” Detroit Free Press,
January 5, 2003
Colby, Joy Hakanson, “’Post-Digital Painting’ pumps new technology into aging
art form.” Detroit News, January 30, 2003
Dawson, Jessica, “Design and Structure in 3-D,” Washington Post, Thursday, October
21, 2004
DiMichele, David, “Painting and Illustration at the Luckman Gallery,”
Artweek, December 02/January 03
Ellegood, Anne, essay for “Architecture Untethered” exhibition, September 2004
Farstad, Julie, Mouth to Mouth, Spring 2003, pp. 43-44 (image)
Finch, Leah, “Scott Anderson”, New Art Examiner, March-April 2002, pp. 78-79
(image)
Finch, Leah, “Apocalypse Next Week,” Dialogue, September 2001,
pp. 31-35 (cover image)
Genocchio, Benjamin, “Today’s Landscapes, Tomorrow’s Dystopia,” New York Times,
June 1, 2008
Green, Tyler, art blog entry, Mondernartnotes.com, October 2004
Haddad, Natalie, “Digital Simulation,” Real Detroit Weekly, March 12-18, 2003
Hannum, Terence, interview in Beautiful/Decay, issue “X,” pp. 44-53
(images and cover image)
Houston, Joe, essay from “Post-Digital Painting” exhibition catalog, 2003,
pp. 11-13, (image)
Ianacci, Elio, UR Magazine, March 19-April 9, 2003, p. 19
Jones, Richard O, “Future looks bright for digital painting,” Journal News,
Hamilton, Ohio, January 24, 2003, (image)
Joyce, Julie, catalog essay, Light and Sie Gallery, Dallas, TX
Knight, Gregory and Silverman, Lanny, essay for exhibition at Chicago Cultural
Center, September 2003
Moffett, Nancy, “30 and Below,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 29, 2003
Mouth to Mouth, “Word for Word,” collaborative interview with Aaron Baker, winter
2004, pp. 15-21 (image)
Murphy, J.J., essay accompanying “Mental Space” exhibition, January 2004
Neuhoff, Tony, “Apocalypse Next Week,” New Art Examiner, November-
December 2001, pp. 93-94
New American Paintings, Volume #35, September 2001 (image)
New American Paintings, Volume #53, Fall 2004 (image)
Pagel, David, catalog essay, Galerie Jean-Luc and Takako Richard, Paris France
Pagel, David, “Dramatic in any language,” Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2005 (image)
Playboy Magazine, reproduction of painting used to illustrate article, “What is the
Meaning of it All?” May 2005, pp. 64-65 (image)
Ross, Adam, essay accompanying the exhibition, “Painting and Illustration,” September
2002
Spector, Buzz, catalog essay from “Painting!,” Central Michigan University, Mt.
Pleasant, MI, October 2003 (cover image)
Spector, Buzz, essay from “Apocalypse Next Week” exhibition brochure,
July 2001 (image)
Stimler, Neal, “Scott Anderson: Worlds Beyond our Own”, effusions, winter 2004, p.11,
(image)
Champaign-Urbana Octopus, “Today in Eight Parts graces I-Space,”
March 16-22, 2001 (image)
Tysh, George, “Art 1010101010101010, Cranbrook’s ‘Post-Digital Painting’
boots up wild new worlds,” Metro Times, January 29, 2003
Wertz, Orion, exhibition brochure essay from “The Babbel of Towers”, October 2004
SELECTED AWARDS
2006 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
2003 William and Dorothy Yeck Award
2001 Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship