“My heart is here. These are my people.”
SEAD Gallery is excited to be hosting work by artist Scott McDermott during the exhibit Retrospective. Scott showed with us previously in 2013, the SEAD Gallery’s opening year with his show Procrastus Interruptus. Since that first show here at the gallery, Scott’s art and style has changed and grown over the years.
Scott McDermott is a name incredibly familiar around College Station and Downtown Bryan, especially in the arts. Growing up in College Station, Scott is a local to this area and has been showing his art around Bryan for years. He returned to Brazos County in 1992 after earning a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas. Now, as a self-employed artist of 25 years, Scott has returned to the SEAD Gallery, bringing along an artistic journey of his art.
He is known for his work with oils though his style has changed over the years, and even since his time first showing with the SEAD Gallery. After growing tired of the planned nature of “brushy photo realism”, he started exploring more spontaneous movement in his work. Continuing on this artistic journey, Scott tapped into a new goal with his art: for the audience’s perception of the work to change over time as their understanding of the piece moved from abstraction to representation. His style changed as he began to brush physical items to the point of abstraction.
After discovering and working in that style, Scott felt that pure abstract work did not flow naturally for him. He pursued a new subject, one with a theme and hoped to engage the viewer in a new way. He had a strong affinity for repeating pattern and its disruption and started to paint on crushed steel “canvases”. Scott has ventured back into the realm of realism and through this journey of artistic styles, his new work pulls elements from each of these stages.
Come see Roger, Nineteen, and others of Scott’s work at the SEAD Gallery during Retrospective until March 10th.
