John Scott’s new drawings explode with images of fighter planes, heroes and anti-heroes, philosophers and artists, minotaurs and robots, all electrified by his raw and fractal drawing style. They are fervent conflations of figures and symbols from history, religion, war, politics, science fiction and technology.
Balancing awe and pathos, Scott excavates beneath the veneer of society and exposes the fears, hopes and deeply rooted, paradoxical beliefs of our current culture, particularly how machines and technology are extensions of human desire. Many of the drawings in this exhibition are portraits of leaders and pioneers, such as Isaac Newton, Napoleon, William Gibson, Alfred Hitchcock and an eight-foot square drawing of Toronto’s own Jane Jacobs.
John Scott has been at the forefront of Canadian contemporary art for nearly two decades. His work speaks directly and forcefully about the social, political and cultural condition of our times. He has had solo exhibitions at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery of Ontario and numerous group exhibitions including ‘Drawing Through the Centuries’ at the Vancouver Art Gallery and ‘Ilya Kabakov/John Scott’ at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto.
