Scott Anderson: Biotech

Scott Anderson Biotech

DENNY DIMIN G A L L E R Y

39 LISPENARD STREET NEW YORK, NY 10013 PHONE: 212-226-6537 WWW.DENNYDIMINGALLERY.COM EMAIL@DENNYDIMINGALLERY.COM

Catalog © 2020 Denny Dimin Gallery Artworks © 2018-2020 Scott Anderson Essay © 2020 Sarah Diver Photograph Credit: Noah McLaurine All rights reserved.

Cover: Small Gardener (detail). 2019. Oil and ink on canvas. 24 x 20 in/61 x 51 cm.

Previous page: Theory and Law (detail). 2020. Oil, oil crayon, ink, colored pencil, sawdust, and gouache on canvas. 57 x 50 in/145 x 127 cm.

Scott Anderson Biotech

Left: Small and Large Swimmers with Mushrooms (detail). 2019. Oil, ink, and flocking powder on canavas.

75 x 60 in/191 x 152 cm.

DENNY DIMIN GALLERY NEW YORK

Scott Anderson: Biotech Sarah Diver It is easy to feel lost, and get lost, in Scott Anderson’s paintings. The decaying body parts, fleshy amorphous limbs, and melting balloon-like shapes swim through bright blues, pulsating greens, and textured yellows.

Each canvas – a “weird membrane,” as the artist calls it – becomes flypaper for the detritus of art history, the artist’s subconscious, and an endless doubling of the viewer’s own interpretation. The paintings are portals between interiority and exteriority: loudly questioning what it means to be a painting, both image and object, in the present world.

The sensation of looking at one of Scott Anderson’s paintings can feel akin to peering into an anxious mind made embarrassingly real and public, as if the interior contents of someone’s brain were thrown from buckets onto a wall. Each of Anderson’s paintings begins as a drawing sketched out in “fast” media, like colored pencil, pastel, crayon, or pen. This allows the artist a liberty in generating each drawing almost akin to stream-ofconsciousness writing. The drawings become maps for Anderson’s paintings; as he builds each canvas, he edits, refines, and plays with color, material, and composition as a way of processing his own mindset concurrent with the moment of the drawing. The paintings become a way of interrogating the rawness and intimacy of the artist’s own psychology, an impulse both specific to Anderson’s upbringing and all-encompassing and objective through its translation to painting.

Scott Anderson was born in Illinois into a highly conservative Evangelical Christian family and spent his formative years in the Midwest. The “romance,” as he calls it, around these religious ideologies always intrigued him, as Evangelical Christianity emphasizes emotional growth and transcendence through the confession and forgiveness of sin. While Anderson moved away and eventually disavowed his religious upbringing, the artist has often described his work in terms of an “agnosticism.”

As with agnostic thought, divinity is neither absent nor present, but simply unknowable, and with each painting, there exists both a rationalized dismantling of Anderson’s own psyche and a hopeful questioning of the possibilities within the present reality and within painting as a object in the world. In other words, a battle between tangible

emotions and rational thought made bare on the canvas through the lexicon of painting. As Anderson has said, his works are both “images of the things, and are the things themselves.”

Six paintings comprise this exhibition titled Biotech.

“Bio-” presupposes a wide variety of etymological meanings – biology, symbiosis, bioluminescence. All related to systems and bodies, cells and processes that move and make our world alive. “Tech” is the antidote to the dynamism, aliveness of “bio” and comes from the Greek word for artistry, art, and skill, techni (τέχνη).

While connotatively many might associate “biotech” with the sleek machinations of start-ups, robotics, and hypercapitalism, the word in its literal sense could perhaps be understood as a stand-in for the act of painting, where the human body translates thought through the material technology of paint on canvas. More broadly, however, technology (the “tech” of “biotech”) has become a truly blanket term to describe so much of what makes up contemporary social interactions, the physical built world, and even the state of the economy: namely, thousands of machines that have been finely tuned to enact specific roles within the world, and by now, dictate human experience. As technology becomes further refined through human skill and innovation, so do the methods of finer and finer control for the “bio” of our world, the manipulation and surveillance of bodies in time and space. This is where the paintings of Scott Anderson live, inside the friction between the representational and the abstract, between now and then, between bodies and society. Between inside and outside the mind. Between the organic and the manmade. In Duck Bone in Leg

Left: Duck Bone in Leg. 2019. Oil, oil crayon, ink, and sawdust on canvas. 42 x 35 in/107 x 89 cm.

Right: Small and Large Swimmers with Mushrooms.

2019. Oil, ink, and flocking powder on canvas. 75 x 60 in/191 x 152 cm.

(2019), a muddy taupe-colored zigzag runs through a prone yellow mass with a bloody colored exposed ribcage or vein structure, and we gaze upon the painting as if examining an open-heart surgery. Is the patient diseased?

Is the bone connected to the flesh? Do the vital organs jolt in a defiant rhythm of life? Or likewise, in Small and Large Swimmers with Mushrooms (2019), anxious faces become confused with the sprouting spores of many mushrooms, all emerging from an oxblood sea. Will the fungus devour the swimmers? Or if they survive, will they ever be the same? Consider the myth of the Lernaean Hydra, a monster whose many heads, once severed, would immediately grow back to take its place. A grey, seated figure’s chest explodes with body parts, a gory shadow to its left and something like a headless nude near a window

Lernaean Thumb Drive.

2020. Oil, sawdust, and ink on canvas. 57 x 50 in/145 x 127 cm

to its right; the body replicated and replaced over and over again in Anderson’s Lernaean Thumb Drive (2020), an agnostic questioning of the limits of data, of the self, of the body reified through an infinite groping of color and extremities.

One could call upon past artists and historical moments to understand certain impulses within the works: the associative collage-like elements of Rauschenberg and the Neo-Dadaists, the gestural-verging-onabstract renderings of the human form from German Expressionists, or the bright synthetic colors from Pop artists. Yet, these works neither pay homage to these historical precedents nor abandon them completely.

Instead, each of Anderson’s paintings asks sincerely what one can make of painting’s history and presents the

Left: Theory and Law. 2020.

Oil, oil crayon, ink, colored pencil, sawdust, and gouache on canvas. 57 x 50 in/145 x 127 cm.

Right: Several Rads. 2019.

Oil, ink, and sawdust on canvas. 44 x 48 in/112 x 122 cm.

struggle between object and subject, image and language, in real time. The paintings question themselves through the juxtaposition and slippage between the different recognizable elements, simultaneously flattening and exploding the canon. They ask, “What do you make of me and my falling-apart-ness? Who or what am I?” The grasping burnt flesh of a Matisse-like figure surrounds a cacophony of concentric oranges, blacks, greens, and yellows in Theory and Law (2020). While the cartoonlike undulating shapes threatening the center of this work could be seen as Philip Guston-gone-wild, the chaos tearing and collapsing the forms onto themselves cries for “theory!” and “law!” as opposed to “history!” to make sense of the turmoil inherent to the scene. The weathered synthetic purples and battered blacks of Several Rads

Right: Small Gardener.

2019. Oil and ink on canvas.

24 x 20 in/61 x 51 cm.

(2019) that outline strange plumbing, a network of bladders and elbows, weakly call out, “Am I rad, dude?”

Similarly, in Small Gardener (2019), a snot-colored slumping mass pokes and prods in the dark as oozing bladders and cryptic crinkled miniatures invade from the flanks. One could imagine seeing the little gardener with X-ray vision, and being shocked to discover Polykleitos’ Doryphoros, leaning with contraposto, lurking just beneath the surface, crusted over with puss or barnacles.

Yet, no matter what historical ephemera one might cast onto this image, any historicizing inclination rises solely from the viewer’s bodily response to the crusty snotfigure, unceasing, grotesque, and somehow wanting.

The works catalyze thought and become systems of representation unto themselves, like symbols from a

visual language wrought through their own history.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) now pours onto this broken world like water in a riverbed, exposing the faultlines, cracks, and inconsistencies that were always present in society but now stand in high relief. It threatens to break it all open. At the core of the collective fear and potential for suffering in this pandemic is the human body – the locus of grief, a litmus test, a vehicle of both safety and danger. And while the paintings in this exhibition predate the outbreak of the virus, Anderson uses the complete lexicon of painting’s material and connotative potential to display this vulnerable and ugly truth about the human body felt so poignantly today across the globe.

Sarah Diver is an emerging writer and curator located in New York, NY. During her tenure as part the curatorial staff at Storm King Art Center between 2016 and 2020, she helped realize several major outdoor exhibitions, including artists like Mark Dion, David Smith, Jean Shin, Elaine Cameron-Weir, and Heather Hart. In 2015, she curated an exhibition on contemporary indigenous printmakers at the International Print Center New York. She received her MA in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies from Columbia University in 2016, and her BA in art history, studio art, and chemistry from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2013. She is currently writing a cookbook-memoir.

Plates

Previous page: Lernaean Thumb Drive (detail). 2020.

Lernaean Thumb Drive, 2020 Oil, sawdust, and ink on canvas 57 x 50 in/145 x 127 cm

Theory and Law, 2020 Oil, oil crayon, ink, colored pencil, sawdust, and gouache on canvas 57 x 50 in/145 x 127 cm

Duck Bone in Leg, 2019 Oil, oil crayon, ink, and sawdust on canvas 42 x 35 in/107 x 89 cm

Small and Large Swimmers with Mushrooms, 2019 Oil, ink, and flocking powder on canvas 75 x 60 in/191 x 152 cm

Crabwalk, 2019 Acylic and oil on canvas 24 x 20 in/61 x 51 cm

Bad Pietà, 2019 Oil, ink, and colored pencil on canvas 75 x 60 in/191 x 152 cm

Hatchback Mask, 2019 Oil and enamel on canvas 24 x 20 in/61 x 51 cm

Forensics Digest, 2019 Oil, oil crayon, ink, and sawdust on canvas 75 x 60 in/191 x 152 cm

Mudroom and Garden, 2019 Oil, oil crayon, ink, and colored pencil on canvas 57 x 50 in/145 x 127 cm

Small Gardener, 2019 Oil and ink on canvas 24 x 20 in/61 x 51 cm

Drive-thru Salad, 2019 Oil, acrylic, ink, and graphite on canvas 57 x 50 in/145 x 127 cm

Several Rads, 2019 Oil, ink, and sawdust on canvas.

44 x 48 in/112 x 122 cm

Green Uvula, 2019 Oil, acrylic, and ink on canvas 24 x 20 in/61 x 51 cm

Country Song, 2018 Oil, oil crayon, and ink on canvas 24 x 20 in/61 x 51 cm

Duck Bone in Leg (detail).

2019. Oil, oil crayon, ink, and sawdust on canvas.42 x 35 in/107 x 89 cm.

Curriculum Vitae Education 2015 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture 2003 Masters of Fine Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne 1997 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Kansas State University Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions 2020 Biotech, Denny Dimin Gallery, New York, NY 2018 Streaming by Lamp and by Fire, Denny Gallery, New York, NY 2017 Lovers and Thinkers, Galerie Richard, Paris 2016 On the Nose, (two person with Austin Eddy), Denny Gallery, New York, NY Supper Club, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS Supper Club, CES Gallery, Los Angeles, CA UNTITLED. Art Fair, with Galerie Richard, Miami, FL

2015 Wiseguys, CES Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Kansas, with David Leigh, Philspace, Santa Fe, NM 2013 Future Perfect Tense, with Orion Wertz, Biggin Gallery, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 2009 Join or Die, Stux Gallery, New York, NY (Catalog) 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 2001 Esperanto for Forage, Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago, IL Selected Group Exhibitions 2019 UNTITLED, Art. Miami Beach, Denny Dimin Gallery, Miami, FL Artifacts, Nevven Gallery, Gothenberg, Sweden Drinking the Reflection, Russo Lee Gallery, Portland, OR 30 Ans, Galerie Richard, Paris 2018 Gocha, Galerie Richard, Paris NADA New York, with Rod Barton Gallery, New York, NY 2017 Painting in due time, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY The Wild West, Galerie Richard, New York, NY 2016 How High?, Left Field Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA Phantom Limb, Nazarian Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Alcove Show, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM 2015 Inside/Outside, Common Street Arts, Waterville, ME, Curator: Michelle Grabner Fantasy of Representation,

Beers of London, London, UK, Curator: Andrew Selgado Ducks:LA, Minotaur Projects, Los Angeles, CA, Curator: Ryan Travis Christian 2014 Ducks, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Curator: Ryan Travis Christian Reverb II, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 2013 The 10th Circle, Vast Space Projects, Henderson, NV, Curator: David Pagel New Surrealism, Mirus Gallery, San Francisco, CA Reverb: Current Abstraction in Painting, University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art, Cedar Falls, IA 2011 Streams of Consciousness, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS, Curator: Christopher Cook Always Nowadays, SCA Contemporary, Albuquerque, NM, Curators: Larry Bob Phillips, and Karl Hoffman 2010 Underground Pop, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, Curator: David Pagel (Catalog) Bunny Redux, Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, Curator: Aaron Baker Cut, Shuffle, Draw, Columbus State University Galleries, Columbus, GA Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Tethered to My World, Highland Park Art Center, Highland Park, IL, Curator: Phyllis Bramson 2010+1 Young Painters: The Miami University’s 21st Century Painting Collection, Heistand Galleries, Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, OH 2009 Low Blow, Stux Gallery, New York, NY Beautiful/Decay A to Z, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Landscape Affected, Haggerty University Gallery, University of Dallas, Dallas, TX 2008 Future Tense: Reshaping the Landscape, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY, Curators: Dede Young and Avis Larson Wild Kingdom, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS Wintergarten, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Berlin, Germany West, Wester, Westest, Fecalface Dot Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Curator: Ryan Christian Apocalypse Yesterday, Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles, CA, Curator: David Pagel Cultivating Instability, Cliff Dwellers, Chicago, IL, Curator: Iain Muirhead New Work From Chicago, Road Agent Gallery, Dallas, TX

2007 Me and My Katamari, Lisa Boyle Gallery, Chicago, IL 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 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) 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) Press and Publications 2019 Slöör, Susanna, “A Life Among Things: Artifacts Nevven Gallery, Gothenburg,” Omkonst, November 19 2018 Nafziger, Christina, “Love and devotion, over and over again

by Scott Anderson,” Art Maze Magazine, Autumn Edition, issue 9 McMahon, Katherine, “A Tour of NADA New York 2018,” ARTnews, March 8 2016 Olivant, David, “Scott Anderson: “Supper Club” at Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art,” art ltd.,

September Johnson, Grant, “Scott Anderson at CES,” Artforum. com, May 2 Pagel, David, “In Scott Anderson’s ‘Supper Club’ Paintings, Pretty Isn’t the Point,” Los Angeles Times, April 14 (image) 2015 Grabner, Michelle, essay for “Inside/Outside,” Common Street Arts, Waterville, ME, July 2013 Crest, Russ, “Made With Color Presents: Scott Anderson’s Paintings Walk The Fine Line Between Abstraction And Representation,” Beautiful/ Decay, June 18 Pagel, David, “Dystopian Abstraction,” Art Pulse Magazine, No. 17, Vol. 5, (image) 2011 Beautiful/Decay, Book 6, “Future Perfect”, (image) 2010 Ernst, Eric, “Between Pop and Postmodern,” 27 East, East Hampton Press + Southampton Press, September 27 Park, Steve, “No Soup Cans in This Pop Art,” Newsday Landes, Jennifer, “Pop Goes Underground,” The East Hampton Star, December 31 Johnson, Ken, “The Allure of the Homespun in the Maw of the Digital Age,” The New York Times.com, September 2 Droitcour, Brian, “Publish or

Parrish,” Artforum.com, Scene and Heard, August 22 The Wolf Magazine for New Poetry, artist in residence, issue no. 23, June Wolff, Rachel, “Pop Goes Mighty Mouse,” ARTnews, Summer, p.33 2008 Genocchio, Benjamin, “Today’s Landscapes, Tomorrow’s Dystopia,” The New York Times, June 1 Joyce, Julie, catalog essay, Light and Sie Gallery, Dallas, TX Cook, Christopher, catalog essay for Revolucio, on the occasion of Join or Die, Stux Gallery, New York, NY Artner, Alan G., Chicago Tribune, March 21 (image) Beautiful/Decay, Issue Z, (image) Hannum, Terence, interview in Beautiful/Decay, issue “X,” pp. 44-53 (images and cover image) 2007 Bon Magazine, “Young Masters,” Fall, pp. 57, 60, 64, (images) 2005 Pagel, David, “Dramatic in any language,” Los Angeles Times, April 8 (image) “What is the Meaning of it All?,” Playboy Magazine, May, pp. 64-65 (image) 2004 Biro, Matthew, Contemporary, issue #69, p.77 Green, Tyler, art blog entry, Mondernartnotes.com, October

Dawson, Jessica, “Design and Structure in 3-D,” The Washington Post, Thursday, October 21 Mouth to Mouth, “Word for Word,” collaborative interview with Aaron Baker, Winter, pp.

15-21(image) Murphy, J.J., essay accompanying “Mental Space” exhibition, January New American Paintings, Volume #53, Fall, (image) Ellegood, Anne, essay for “Architecture Untethered” exhibition, September Wertz, Orion, exhibition brochure essay from “The Babbel of Towers”, October Pagel, David, catalog essay, Galerie Jean-Luc and Takako Richard, Paris France 2003 Artner, Alan G., “Scott Anderson’s Odd Beauty,” Chicago Tribune, April 18 (image) Azizian, Carol, “Cranbrook exhibit driven by technology,” Flint Journal, January 3 Jones, Richard O, “Future looks bright for digital painting,” Journal News, Hamilton, Ohio, January 24 (image) Haddad, Natalie, “Digital Simulation,” Real Detroit Weekly, March 12-18 Knight, Gregory and Silverman, Lanny, essay for exhibition at Chicago Cultural Center, September Moffett, Nancy, “30 and

Below,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 29 Brunetti, John, “Scott Anderson and CyberLandscape,” The C.A.C.A. Review, October, p. 3 Camper, Fred, “Imperfect Worlds,” Chicago Reader, April 11, pp. 26 – 27 (image) Chomin, Linda Ann, “PostDigital exhibit captures painting ‘of the moment’,” Observer & Eccentric, March 6 Blinderman, Barry, “Painting in the Digital Age,” essay for 4th Annual Miami University Young Painters exhibition, January Cohen, Keri Guten, “Artists use technology in paintings,” Detroit Free Press, January 5 Spector, Buzz, catalog essay from “Painting!,” Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI, October (cover image) Tysh, George, “Art 1010101010101010, Cranbrook’s ‘Post-Digital Painting’ boots up wild new worlds,” Metro Times, January 29 Colby, Joy Hakanson, “’PostDigital Painting’ pumps new technology into aging art form.” Detroit News, January 30 Houston, Joe, essay from “Post-Digital Painting” exhibition catalog, pp. 11-13, (image) Farstad, Julie, Mouth to Mouth, Spring, pp. 43-44 (image)

DiMichele, David, “Painting and Illustration at the Luckman Gallery,” Artweek, December 02/January 03 2002 Ross, Adam, essay accompanying the exhibition, “Painting and Illustration,” September Finch, Leah, “Scott Anderson”, New Art Examiner, March-April, pp.

78-79 (image) Blinderman, Barry, essay from “Nubo Wave Map Space Bubble,” brochure, January (image) 2001 Neuhoff, Tony, “Apocalypse Next Week,” New Art Examiner, NovemberDecember, pp. 93-94 Spector, Buzz, essay from “Apocalypse Next Week” exhibition brochure, July Champaign-Urbana Octopus, “Today in Eight Parts graces I-Space,” March 16-22 (image) Champaign-Urbana Octopus, April 13-19 (cover image) New American Paintings, Volume #35, September Finch, Leah, “Apocalypse Next Week,” Dialogue, September, pp. 31-35 (cover image) Artner, Alan G., “Gallery Season Guide,” Chicago Tribune, September Artner, Alan G., “Visions by four. The theme is apocalypse, the art, Inventive.” Chicago Tribune, August 10, p.32