Nathalie Karg Gallery is pleased to present Scrapbook, a new body of work by Scott Young, on view at 127 Elizabeth Street from September 4 through October 12.
Scrapbook takes its name from the popular method of preserving, presenting, and arranging personal and family histories that began in fifteenth-century England and rose to prominence- like most forms of self-mythologizing - during Modernism. Fast-forward to 1971, ‘Scrapbook’ was the working title for what would become known as the World Wide Web. The paintings in Scrapbook build on this jumbled history of storage, information, and imagery to question how meaning and identity are assembled into localized bodies.
The content and color palate of the works are modeled on the cultural aesthetics found in and around Young’s hometown of Seattle and the 1990s alternative music scene in which he grew up. ‘Grunge’, embodied by bands such as Hole and Nirvana, catalyzed a significant cultural shift and demonstrated capitalism's power to elevate a once marginalized community into mainstream ideology. Today, elements of this world continue to resurface - fragmented and whole - and demonstrate how cultural references evolve between distinct sites of individual transformation and the often alienating world of mass media.
On the gallery's far wall, Young continues his exploration of Barn Quilts—simple geometric paintings developed from quilting patterns traditionally displayed on barns. These classic examples of Americana continue to increase in communities across America and serve as an exterior inversion to the psychology of scrapbooking.
Hung in a grid, the works engage with the barn-like architecture of 127 Elizabeth Street and collage references to many iconic Modernist painters and Cubist still lifes. Young’s versions double their material nature via tedious trompe l’oeil painting techniques and employ hues referencing a contemporary digital landscape.
Barn Quilts testify to the authentic value painting can offer. By appropriating this phenomenon while layering deceptive imagery and references, Young highlights their legitimacy while acknowledging - as the Etsy economy they have stemmed attests to the potential problems in doing so.
Scott Young (b. 1988, Seattle, WA) lives and works in London. He studied Philosophy at The Evergreen State College and traditional decorative painting at Van der Kelen Logelain, Brussels. He graduated from the MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2022. Recent solo exhibitions include Decoy at Duarte Sequeira, Seoul (2024), Planned Obsolescence at NADA Miami (2023), Storage Solutions at V.O Curations, London (2023), and Home Wrecker (Citrus of Sadness) at Des Bains, London (2022). Recent group exhibitions include Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw (2024); Hannah Barry Gallery, London (2024); Galerie Mitterrand, Paris (2023); The Artist Room, London (2022); Christie’s, London (2022); Art Exchange Gallery at University of Essex (2020).
