Gregory Scott

Catherine Edelman, Chicago
by Margaret Hawkins, ARTNEWS

Tossed, 2008

Gregory Scott’s ingenious painting-photo-video amalgams use humor to help blur the lines between mediums. At first, the images seem to be static photographs, often featuring a painting, print, or photo within the scene. But when parts of the composition start to shift, painted elements give way to animations and photos become movies. Deepening the appeal of these disconcerting works are the stories they tell, most of which bear themes of loneliness, solitude, and exclusion.

In Tossed (2008), a reproduction of saccharine Thomas Kinkade painting comes to life, but the bucolic paradise alters into a scene o domestic strife as a man’s belongings are thrown out of the front door on idyllic little cottage and onto the lawn. As in all of Scott’s work here, the action circles back on itself in a continuous loop – the man collects his things, departs, and then returns, abject with bouquet, only to get kicked out once again. More than telling the story of a troubled family, the work is about the strained relationship between kitsch and art.

In Dinner for One (2009), the best work in the show, the story is quieter. On a barren snowy road, a man sets a picnic table for two, then sits down to eat his dinner alone. The incongruity and sweetness of the image makes the viewer forget the technical gadgetry behind it, even as the lopping lends the scene added poignancy and grace.