| Sculptor Gregory Farrar Scott has the gift of bringing unrelated things together in new creations. In his artist's vision, he sees how disparate things could fit together and become something entirely new, and once they have become this new thing, the viewer says, "Oh, of course!" and wouldn't want to see the component parts separated, but only together, because the fit is so perfect and the new thing is so charming and so entirely its own being. As the artist tells it, he has always done this, combined things in unusual ways. An early example—as a three-year-old, he covered the white exterior of his family's refrigerator with chocolate sauce. It must have just seemed right.
Later on, in art school he left some used bike helmets hanging on the wall, realized they looked like faces, and the mask project was born. Scott now has a collection of over 100 masks. Some became animal faces, some became odd techie visages, possible sci-fi characters, or sly references to how we live—remember hoarding toilet paper in the first weeks of the pandemic? A junior slinky becomes, of course, a baby elephant's trunk. Simplicity is key. Scott's work is undeniably fun, but there is serious inquiry as well, into questions of identity, self-knowledge, and self-presentation. As the artist says: "A mask can be anything and anything can be a mask."
Curator Susan Hillhouse Leask says she was drawn to Scott's artwork for several reasons, including "his sophisticated understanding of contemporary art and art history, and his passion for excellence." Leask also appreciates that he thinks of our fragile environment in considering his materials, so that discarded items that would likely have ended up in a landfill instead become fine art.
After receiving a BFA from Kent State University in 1977, Scott began his art career as an illustrator and graphic designer, specializing in logo and T-shirt designs. In 2008, with a view to focusing more on his personal artwork, he returned to school and earned an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His work now includes sculpture, drawing, photography, experimental video, and as he says, "the ever-expanding genre known as works-on-paper." This includes the wonderful potato and sweet potato printed paper works in this exhibit. Scott has exhibited at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History; SOMArts, San Francisco; Fibre Arts Gallery, Palo Alto; Arc Gallery, San Francisco; and Projects Gallery in Philadelphia, as well as in New York City, Grand Rapids, and Houston. He first showed work at Sanchez Art Center in 2010, when his entry in the juried show Arts on Fire XIV earned him a Juror's Award of Merit from guest juror Philip E. Linhares, then Chief Art Curator at the Oakland Museum of California.
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To learn more about the artist and his work, come to
the Artist/Curator Talk on closing Sunday,
Aug 15, at 3:30 pm. Main Gallery.
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Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd in Pacifica, about a mile east of Highway 1. Following opening night, the galleries are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm. Our safety protocol aligns with the State and San Mateo County, welcoming fully vaccinated guests without masks and respecting all who continue to feel more comfortable wearing one. For more information, email info@SanchezArtCenter.org, or call 650.355.1894.
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