Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Scott G. Brooks Paints Everyday Objects as Relics in New Portraits

Scott G. Brooks, featured here on our blog, paints offbeat portraits, often expressing a surreal narrative inspired by children's books and his own psyche. Described as twisted, sentimental, and disturbing, his portraits are characterized by his use of wit and the distorted version of reality they present. "Using a language that is easily understood, I tell stories. I weave figures, symbols, and elements together to create a narrative to share with an audience," he says.

Scott G. Brooks, featured here on our blog, paints offbeat portraits, often expressing a surreal narrative inspired by children’s books and his own psyche. Described as twisted, sentimental, and disturbing, his portraits are characterized by his use of wit and the distorted version of reality they present. “Using a language that is easily understood, I tell stories. I weave figures, symbols, and elements together to create a narrative to share with an audience,” he says.

For his new series, Scott has produced a body of work that makes “relics” of every day objects like plastic dolls incorporated into his portraits. In one portrait, “The Shaming”, he reproduces the image of Christ wearing a crown of thorns and clutching a Barbie doll. His fingers cross with a red crayon to form the letters “IC XC” (Greek letters for “Jesus Christ”), bringing a whimsy to the serious tone of religious portraiture. Though the setting is imaginative, the series sees Brooks using a more realistic style.

On his work’s playfulness, Brooks shares: “I use humor in my work and in real life as a way to cut through the uncomfortable-ness, both my own and that of other people. My humor can fall flat in both circumstances as well, but often it can put people at ease. Art with a capital “A” can be quite intimidating and take itself too seriously, so the humor in my work helps alleviate that.” Scott G. Brooks will be showing new work in “Curios” at beinArt Gallery in Australia on May 28th.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Artist Brett Crawford looks at his pieces as collaborations between the work and the viewer, each an inviting narrative. His new show at 111 Minna Gallery, "Caravan," features paintings that blend pop culture, mythology, and otherwise odd moments. The show kicks off on July 6.
Jennybird Alcantara’s absorbing, vivid oil paintings blend the surreal and the fantastical. In a new show at KP Projects in Los Angeles, titled “Reveries of the Untamed Darlings,” the artist offers a new collection of works. Alcantara was last mentioned on HiFructose.com here. The gallery describes her work as “an epic fantasy, where the untamed are the gatekeepers of the mysterious beyond.”
During the late Italian Renaissance, ‘Mannerist’ artists had technically mastered the nude and began playing with her proportions. Toronto based artist Troy Brooks uses the same visual language in his figurative paintings of elongated women. The ‘women of Troy’ are characteristically fashion forward and emotionally indifferent; caught between moments of boredom, rebellion, and transformation. Often, his blonde ‘heroine’ is compared to Psycho’s Norma Bates, which might cast her as a manipulative she-devil. She is posed in weird environments of soft colors that match her pale white skin. Her abnormally stretched limbs are almost torturous-looking and unsettling, complimenting Brook’s bizarre themes.
Italian artist Agostino Arrivabene paints an iconographic universe that exists somewhere at the division between the real world from the spiritual realm. Previously featured here on our blog, his works include landscapes, portraits, and large paintings allegorical and apocalyptic in nature. Subjects of his paintings often appear as if from another time and place, celestial bodies and nudes emerging from the earth that recall the figures of those who influence him, particularly Gustave Moreau and Odd Nerdrum. Arrivabene describes his personal world as one that is eclectic and occult, where his artistic lanuage changes depending on his life experience. His upcoming solo exhibition at Cara Gallery in New York, "Hierogamy", delves into mythological themes and ideas about personal intimacy, change, and time.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List