August 13, 2022âDecember 31, 2022
THE ALBANY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY & ART
1125 Washington Ave
Albany, NY 12210
This exhibition features the artwork of British artist Paul Scott, paired with transferwares, prints and paintings from the Albany Instituteâs collection. Together, they enact a dialogue between present and pastâbetween Scottâs observations of America today and the constructed ideals and romanticized views consumed by Americans in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Â
For the past five years, Scott has examined, reworked, and reinterpreted the transfer-printed ceramics that English potteries produced by the thousands throughout the nineteenth century. These earthenware plates, platters, and pitchers, printed in shades of blue, red, purple, and black, graced many American dining tables and presented images of picturesque scenery and stately public buildings. In his series, New American Scenery, Scott scrutinizes the American landscape from a contemporary perspective, one that grapples with issues of globalization, energy generation and consumption, capitalism, social justice, and immigration, as well as the human impact on the environment. The images that Scott creates for his ceramics depict unsettling views of nuclear power plants, aging urban centers, abandoned industrial sites, wildfires, and isolating walls. As representations of the American landscape, they suggest a subversion of the picturesque aestheticâthe unpicturesque picturesqueâand a new, disturbing norm.
PROGRAMMING & EVENTS
Important Dates:
Aug. 13, 2022 – Opening
Jan. 3, 2023 – Closing
LECTURE | PAUL SCOTT: NEW AMERICAN SCENERY
Sunday, November 6, 2:00 to 3:00pm
In this lecture, Paul Scott will discuss his artistic process and provide exclusive insights into Paul Scott, New American Scenery.
Included with gallery admission at Albany Institute of History & Art
English, b. 1953, Darley Dale, Derbyshire, England
lives and works in Cumbria, UK
Paul Scott is a Cumbrian-based artist with a diverse practice and an international reputation. Creating individual pieces that blur the boundaries between fine art, craft and design, he is well known for research into printed vitreous surfaces, as well as his characteristic blue and white artworks in glazed ceramic.
Scottâs artworks can be found in public collections around the globe â including The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design Norway, the Victoria and Albert Museum London, National Museums Liverpool, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh and Brooklyn Art Museum USA. Commissioned work can be found in a number of UK museums as well as public places in the North of England, including Carlisle, Maryport, Gateshead and Newcastle Upon Tyne. He has also completed large-scale works in Hanoi, Vietnam and GuldagergĂ„rd public sculpture park in Denmark.
A combination of rigorous research, studio practice, curation, writing and commissioned work ensures that his work is continually developing. It is fundamentally concerned with the re-animation of familiar objects, landscape, pattern and a sense of place. He was Professor of Ceramics at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) from 2011â2018. Scott received his Bachelors of Art Education and Design at Saint Martinâs College and Ph.d at the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design in Manchester, England.
His current research project New American Scenery has been enabled by an Alturas Foundation artist award, Ferrin Contemporary, and funding from Arts Council England. More on New American Scenery, here.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION LENDERS & SPONSORS
Historical Background
Founded in 1791, the Albany Institute of History & Art is one of the oldest museums in the United States. It also is the major repository for the region’s heritage, with nationally significant collections. The genesis of the Albany Institute of History & Art began with The Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, founded in New York City in Federal Hall. Supported by the New York state legislature, to which it served as an informational advisor, the society met to improve the stateâs economy through advances in agricultural methods and manufacturing technologies. In accordance with the condition that they meet where the legislature convened, the society moved to Albany in 1797, when it became the state capital. From 1998 to 2001, the Albany Institute raised $17 million to bring the museum galleries and facilities up to twenty-first-century standards with a renovation and expansion project that created the museum you know today.
THE ALBANY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY & ART
1125 Washington Ave
Albany, NY 12210
INQUIRE
Additional works may be available to acquire, but not listed here.
If interested in lists of all works and series: Send us a message
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