Scott Hunt, New York, USA
Biography
As a fine artist whose discipline is drawing, Scott Hunt produces charcoal and pastel works on paper that are narrative and/or allegorical in nature. The critic, Ana Finel Honigman, asserts that the drawings are “meticulously crafted” and the gallerist, Robert Goff says that the works have “intensely enigmatic and mysterious subject matter. The viewer encounters a vision of America that is at once sympathetic, humorous, and apocalyptic.”
Hunt has had seven solo shows with: New Arts Projects in London (2016), Coullaud & Koulinsky in Paris (2014); Schroeder Romero & Shredder in New York (2012); Goff + Rosenthal Galleries, two in New York, one in Berlin (2006–08); and Russell Projects in Richmond, VA (2010). Additionally, he had a solo presentation with Robert Goff Gallery at the NEXT CHICAGO art fair in 2010. His work has been included in group shows at: Wartburg State College, IA; Cream Contemporary, Berlin; Salomon Contemporary in Easthampton, NY; Coullaud & Koulinsky in Paris; and a show of 68 American contemporary artists curated by Beth Rudin deWoody at Shizaru Gallery in London.
As an illustrator, Hunt’s work has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers,The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire (U.S. and Russia), The Boston Globe, and GQ Magazine. His book, Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Art (Dutton) was voted one of the Top Ten Art Books for Young Adults in 2006 by the American Library Association.
Hunt was awarded the 2017 FID Prize for Drawing. He is the recipient of a Fellowship from The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) as well as a grant from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation. His work is included in many international collections, including the Colecção Madeira Corporate Services Drawing Collection in Portugal. His work is included in the permanent collections of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem and The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (Los Angeles).
ARTIST STATEMENT
I’m working within an oeuvre of American Realism that can be traced back at least as far as to Copley’s “Watson and the Shark.” I draw on inspiration from American artists of many disciplines, including: Walker Evans, Hopper, Faulkner, Charles Addams, Paul Cadmus, Joyce Carol Oates, George Tooker, Fairfield Porter, and the first 60 years of American cinema.
My creative process begins with the collecting of discarded snapshots from flea markets and the internet. My interest in the casual snapshot is its link to a history or memory that I cannot access. The inaccessible nature of these memories—or stories—has led me to a preoccupation with inventing new narratives for the objects and figures depicted in the photographs. By doing so, I’m ostensibly endeavoring to “save” these anonymous people and objects from obscurity while simultaneously mining the stories that inhabit my dream life. My subconscious narratives often reflect a dark, mysterious, and intrinsically Gothic view of America; suburbs leach danger, authority figures evince moral turpitude, nature threatens, and the surface of all things belies the more messy, complicated realities of being human. The works are saved from being unrelentingly gloomy by a consistently wry sense of humor.
The drawings are narrative, figurative, realism-based, and they borrow heavily from the aesthetic of snapshots from the 1940–60s. I incorporate into the works some of what I consider to be the “felicitous mistakes” associated with the medium of amateur photography—skewed horizon lines, improper focus, halation, odd croppings—and harness the visual symbolism of those details to suggest emotional undercurrent and meaning.
After having culled a selection from hundreds of snapshots, I identify elements in each photo that are intriguing—a figure, a bit of architecture, a family pet—and I remove them from their original context. I then combine them with elements from other photographs until I’ve created a wholly new mise en scène with a reinvented reality. Symbolism, Surrealism, and Absurdism are all put to use to create works that are, as the art dealer Robert Goff says, “drawings with intensely enigmatic and mysterious subject matter. The viewer encounters a vision of America that is at once sympathetic, humorous, and apocalyptic.”
The medium is charcoal on rag paper. A kind of alchemy happens as the charcoal is rubbed with the fingertips into the tooth of the paper. The resulting texture serves to create an overall atmosphere that is dream-like—a quality that’s unique to the medium and is in direct service to the subject matter.
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SCOTT HUNT, CURRICULUM VITAE
Born 1958, Ossining, New York. Lives and works in Manhattan
EDUCATION
1981
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Parsons School of Design
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016
“God is an American,” New Art Projects, London, England
VOLTA Basel, New Art Projects (London), Basel, Switzerland
2014
“Entre Chien et Loup,” Coullaud & Koulinsky, Paris, France
2012
“Then the Darkness Fell,” Schroeder Romero & Shredder, Chelsea, NY
2010
“Recent Drawings,” Russell Projects, Richmond, VA
NEXT Chicago, Robert Goff Gallery
2008
“That Sticky Candy,” Goff + Rosenthal Gallery, Chelsea, NY
2007
“Death and the Maiden,” Goff + Rosenthal Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2006
“The Tender Land,” Goff + Rosenthal Gallery, Chelsea, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
“Moi, Courbet,” Galerie Mathias Coullard, Paris, France
2015
“Cocteau Contemporain,” Coullaud & Koulinsky, Paris, France, curated by Dominique Païni
PULSE Miami, New Art Projects (London), Miami, FL
2014
Special Project, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, Chelsea, NY
2013
“Charcoal!,” Schick Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
“Ladies & Gents,” Salomon Contemporary, Chelsea, NY
“Drawing Discourse,” UNC Asheville, NC
2012
“Bad For You,” Shizaru Gallery, London, England, curated by Beth Rudin deWoody
“Summer Camp,” Schroeder Romero & Shredder, Chelsea, NY Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
2011
“The Garden,” Allan/Nederpelt, Brooklyn, NY
Special project, Allegra LaViola Gallery, Lower East Side, NY
2010
“Plank Road,” Salomon Contemporary, Chelsea, NY
“Hunt & Chase, Salomon Contemporary, East Hampton, NY
“Sky Was Yellow, Sun Was Blue,” Russell Projects, Richmond, VA
2009
“Exquisite Corpse,” Cream Contemporary Gallery, Berlin, Germany, (with Cornelia Renz and Joe Biel) “Multi-media,” Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery, Wartburg College, Waverly, IA
“Summer Exhibition,” Goff + Rosenthal, Chelsea, NY
2006
“Inaugural Exhibition,” Goff + Rosenthal, Berlin, Germany
2005
“Paradise Lost,” Goff + Rosenthal Gallery, Chelsea, NY
RELATED PROJECTS
2009
CURATION: The Soft Glow of Brutality: The Art of Hugh Steers, The Frank Moore Archive Project, Visual AIDS
2006
BOOK PROJECT: Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Art (Dutton), concept and drawings by Scott Hunt
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2009
The Morning News, The Art of the American Snapshot, November 30, www.themorningnews.org, NY Arts Magazine, May 2009, Vol. 14 No. 3/4
2008
Art & Auction Magazine, September 2008, Vol. XXXII, No. 1, Essay by Robert Goff
2007
Scott Hunt In Conversation With Ana Finel Honigman, www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk 2006: Desenhos (“Drawings”) A–Z, Colecção Madeira Corporate Services
GRANTS/AWARDS
2017
The FID Prize for Drawing
2007
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
2006–2007
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
COLLECTIONS
The Israel Museum Jerusalem
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
Colecção Madeira Corporate Services Drawing Collection, Portugal
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