Interview: Gary Scott
Luca Curci talks with Gary Scott during BARCELONA CONTEMPORARY – 3RD EDITION at Valid World Hall Gallery.

Based in Plymouth, Devon, the sculptor Gary Scott has recently returned to his home city after many years living in London.  He makes abstract works drawing inspiration and materials from his local landscape with casts taken from rock pools, collections of discarded litter, mud, pebbles and seaweed and in the studio, these are morphed into forms and united with pure pigment, gold leaf and psychedelic car paint. His work has a dynamic unpredictability, a tender awkwardness, which at once seduces yet challenges our perceptions and assumptions. Gary’s work has been widely exhibited including at the Royal College of Art, ING Discerning Eye, the Cork Street Open, KPMG’s Canary Wharf HQ and at Waterperry House, Oxford. He is collected internationally, with owners as far afield as New York, Dubai, Barbados and Brisbane. As well as his Gallery work, he has undertaken numerous commissions including the memorial sculpture “Free Spirit” situated in the heart of St. Ives in Cornwall and publicly visible. Scott has a degree from Oxford Brookes in Psychology and Human Biology, a Sculpture Diploma from the Art Academy in London and recently completed an MA in Art and Science at Central Saint Martins (2016/18), achieving a Merit.

Luca Curci – What is art for you?
Gary Scott – Art is my life, it’s totally entwined with my past present and future and is a compulsion.

LC – What are you currently working on?
GS – I’m currently expanding the “Venus” series, using them as ‘canvases’ to explore and represent various Ikons from art through fashion and music and so on. It’s incredible how the same torso can look so completely different given differing painterly approaches.

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your sculptures?
GS – Funnily enough, the biggest challenge for me is time; I have so many ideas and, well, there are only so many hours in the day. Generally, I’ll be working on three pieces at once and this helps.

LC – Which is the role the artist and contemporary art play in society? Which art themes do you pursue?
GS – I strongly believe that art is a fundamental human need so artists are even more important than ever, given all the global issues of our time. Whatever work I’m doing, it always comes back to what it is to be human – life, sexuality and mortality and everything in between.

LC – We were attracted by your last artistic production, has the sculpture presented been created for the festival or as a part of preexisting works?
GS – My sculpture “Venus Nyx” was not created specifically for the Barcelona Show but should sit well amongst the great variety of international contemporary artists invited to show.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
GS – ITSLIQUID represents a great opportunity for artists to expand their audience, often showing in exciting major cities and inevitably on social media.