REFRAMED INTO OBLIVION

18.08.22 - 02.10.22

Walter Scott

“He can’t make anything that’s too sincere. As sincere as other art. So retrograde. Get real.”

The Naughton Gallery proudly presents Reframed into Oblivion, the first UK and Ireland solo exhibition by Toronto-based artist Walter Scott (b.1985). As an artist who spans disciplines – including comics, drawing, video, sculpture, and performance – Scott is driven by an interest in identity, representation, and narrative.

Scott’s is a meta-referential, playful practice, informed by millennial ennui and multi-channelled thinking. Truth and fiction are simultaneously tangled and unravelled in the diaristic, semi-autobiographical drawings on display, many of which depict scenes set in a gallery environment. We see the artist represented in exaggerated, cartoon form alongside Wendy, the titular protagonist of his popular comics series, whilst the exhibition’s sculptural elements often appear twice; as physical, three-dimensional objects and then again as drawings or collaged photographs in Scott’s works on paper.

Experimentation abounds in Scott’s conceptually layered practice, which is humorous, self-deprecating, and thought-provoking. The drawings and sculptures on display sit somewhere between concepts and finished works, through which we gain insight into the artist’s mindset. We see Scott’s musings, his sketches and blueprints, scribbled notes and reminders to himself, and criticism of both his own work and the cultural institutions it is often contextualised within.

Scott previously exhibited at the Naughton Gallery in the 2020 group show, Lemonade Stand, and he is perhaps best known for his comics series, Wendy, which chronicles the continuing misadventures of a young artist in a satirical version of the contemporary art world. Wendy has been featured in Canadian Art, Art in America, and published online by The New Yorker. Recent exhibitions include The Scrawled Heel of the Real, Ashley (Berlin), and Extension of Doubt, Cooper Cole (Toronto). Scott was recently an artist-in-residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (Brooklyn, NY), and his latest graphic novel, Wendy, Master of Art, was published by Drawn and Quarterly in 2020.