Evoke Contemporary | Through 4/23 | Santa Fe, NM

Nature’s Dance

Join Evoke Contemporary in celebrating the work and book release of Michael Scott’s American landscape paintings.

EVOKE Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will be kicking off the much-anticipated Preternatural exhibition and book release of wilderness and landscape painter, Michael Scott. The project is 10 years in the making, dealing with the American landscape and its history, along with Scott’s own history with the landscape. The book and exhibition traverses Scott’s 40-year career, also incorporating new pieces, and showcases environmental and spiritual concerns, using the landscape as metaphor.Old Growth, Forest, oil on canvas, 72 x 102"

A smaller exhibition will start at EVOKE, beginning with a book signing on Friday, March 25, followed by a larger exhibition of around 75 paintings at the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) in combination with other American landscape paintings, running from May 27 through January 2023. The book will include around 120 pieces, some not shown in the exhibition, with an introduction by the museum’s CEO and three curatorial essays.

“Scott’s plein air studies become memory maps of the moments that captured his attention, portals to the form and matter of the places that stopped him in his tracks,” notes the EVOKE press release. “While the form is captured in the shapes of rocks, geysers, clouds and blazing forests, its matter, or substance, is comprised of nothing less than the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire.”Saguaro Dance II, oil on canvas, 107 x 58"

The exhibition at the CMC is categorized in relation to the four elements, with the first room dedicated to earth and the last room featuring Scott’s fire pieces. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the national parks of the American West,” says Scott, “and they are, in my opinion, the largest and wildest in some ways. It doesn’t get much better than being in Yellowstone in the dead of winter and watching geysers erupt around ice and snow. Yosemite and the Grand Canyon were other major retreats, and what occurred out of this, was learning there was more to the conversation, so it drew the project towards
the elements.”

In earth piece Old Growth, Forest, featuring a forested area from the Olympic National Park, Scott explains, “Anytime you go into a dense forest like this, and moisture and fog dominate the weather pattern, what occurs is a certain ion charge. The perception of the objects—the forest floor, pine needles, the bark—they all become charged a little differently. The light changes the desert, not necessarily the desert creating it, but in a rainforest, the charge comes from the objects themselves. That is what’s being portrayed here.”Rogue Wave, oil on canvas, 96 x 108"

Northern Arkansas’ Buffalo River, the only river that’s a national park, is depicted in the water and earth piece Buffalo River, Early Mist, in which Scott connects how water can offer spiritual clarity. “When you camp close to a stream and get up in the morning, well what do you do? You get some water to drink or to use to make coffee, but one life-affirming activity is getting on your knees and splashing your face with the cold water. At this point, when the cold water hits your face, you know you’re alive. This is a great moment that affirms the life force within you. The purity of fresh water provides clarity to the mind.”

In a completely different region, in Tucson, Arizona, is the Saguaro National Park displayed in Scott’s piece Saguaro Dance II. Featuring a close-up view of a saguaro surrounded by ocotillo, Scott says, “This is about the play of things that live and provide homes and nurture life. This is nature’s dance. You might notice there are many marks on the cactus, and this is made my animals like the Gila woodpecker who makes a home. The saguaro cactus also puts off around 40 million seeds that are a food source. The ocotillo is a food source for hummingbirds. The painting is showing the dance of these various actors that populate the cactus and the surrounding shrubbery.”Buffalo River, Early Mist, oil on canvas, 57 x 73"

Both the exhibition at EVOKE and the CMC will be quite the sight to behold. Scott’s magical landscapes are an immersive experience, and it will be even more amplified at the museum with the addition of nature sounds. Don’t miss the opportunity to be mystified by bold, vibrant works of astounding natural scenery.

EVOKE Contemporary
550 S. Guadalupe Street • Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 995-9902, www.evokecontemporary.com