Scott Bauer

Paintings are illusions. But the medium and the surface together generate a reality: an object but also a reaction from the viewer. Whatever impulse to communicate inspires a painting, the object that comes from that desire becomes its own reality. And the process of conveying an idea in paint alters it, sometimes to a degree where the original idea is unrecognisable: the hand isn’t merely doing the bidding of the mind. This is what makes the creative process so exciting to me. This is why I paint.
I take my inspiration from nature, abstracting what I see to try to distil a sensation. Often I seek to represent catharsis, similar to what I might feel looking at nature. I often use lines, singly or in great monochrome or chromatic clusters, to convey a sensation or a rhythm onto a two-dimensional surface.

I was born in the United States. As a young child, my parents took me to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, a wonderland of Renaissance and Baroque paintings. I credit my desire to make art with this initiation. I studied art history and visual arts at Rutgers University and Mason Gross School of the Arts, graduating with a dual honours degree in 1999. Since graduation I have worked as an auction-house specialist at Sotheby’s, curator for a private art collector and director of an arts foundation. From 2015, painting has been my career.

Talented Art Fair exhibitor, March 2019
Solo Show, Studio 73, Brixton, June 2019
The Other Art Fair exhibitor, July 2019
La Galleria Pall Mall Summer Show exhibitor, July 2019