About
Beers Contemporary is proud to present The Shape of Things, a solo exhibition by American artist Scott Carter including sculptural works and unique installations. Carter's artistic practice encompasses a wide artistic discourse, including art, design, architecture, and even sound, but always relate to the nature of space and its relationship to the individual. For his first solo exhibition in the UK, Carter will engage in a brief 'residency' on-site at Beers Contemporary, transforming the gallery space in the week prior to the opening of the exhibition, creating an immersive installation and numerous sculptural pieces using only the materials that are encompassed within - and sourced from - the walls of the gallery itself.
Deriving from a tactile sense for materials, Carter's process is undoubtedly unique: upon entering the exhibition space, his response is both performative and sculptural. From the raw materials by which he is surrounded, transforms the concept of space and architecture, literally excavating sections of the wall, (or even flooring) and reconstructing new artworks from those raw materials. With such a dependency on materiality, Carter's work remains whimsical, referential, and personal, managing to transcend their base materiality, as his source materials (at once reduced to their origins) are elevated and imbued with newness of form and function.
Through the process of examining materials, Carter analyses his, and our, own placement in time and space. Inevitably, this process calls attention to human fallibility, our alienation from the natural world, meditation, and spiritualism as one attempts to assert alternate meaning in the built environment. Through Carter's actions, subtle idiosyncrasies reveal themselves, coinciding with the physicality of domestic life and the limitlessness of imagination. These interventions, ultimately, amount to concise, playful and creative critiques of the way we experience space and the belongings, memories, and items that inhabit our world and define us as humans.
Scott Carter is influenced by the experience of living amongst mass produced materials, spaces and objects that are inherent in contemporary architecture and design. His work manifests as immersive installations and interactive objects that facilitate subtle shifts in value and attempt to redefine utility in relation to everyday experiences. His practice parallels contemporary discourse in art, design, architecture and sound. In short, Carter's process is undoubtedly unique: upon entering the exhibition space, Carter's methods are both performative and sculptural: he reshapes the contemporary gallery space by literally excavating sections of the gallery drywall (or floor) and reconstructing a new sculpture or installation from those pieces. Carter's work is derived from a tactile sense for materials. Through the process of examining materials and their function, he attempts to assert alternate meaning in the built environment and through this act, reveals subtle idiosyncrasies that coincide with the physicality of domestic life. These interventions, ultimately, amount to concise, playful and creative critiques of the way we experience space and the items that inhabit them.
SCOTT CARTER (b. 1984, United States) received his MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 where he was the first recipient of the Eldon Danhausen Fellowship for Sculpture. He previously spent six years as an emerging artist and student in Atlanta, Georgia where he received his BFA in Painting from the Atlanta College of Art/Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta. Scott recently attended two funded residencies at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont and the Ox Bow School of Art in Saugatuck Michigan. Selected solo shows are Zero Point Field, Evanston Art Centre, Evanston, Il (2013); Force Majeure, Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, Il (2012) and in 2011 he completed a solo exhibition entitled Affect/Effect at the Contemporary Art Center of Las Vegas. He has been part of several group exhibitions Somewhere Else, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, Mi (2012); Plural Zone, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbus Building Chicago, Il (2012). In 2013 he was the first place winner of the Beers Contemporary Emerging Artist Award in sculpture. He also participated and performed in the 2013 CAFKA Biennial and Open Ears Sound Festival in Kitchener/Waterloo Canada.
