Johan Scott Transkriptioner

Stockholm, 20.4–3.6  2023

GSA Gallery is pleased to present Johan Scott’s third solo exhibition together with the gallery. The exhibition Transkriptioner will be the first at the gallery space in Stockholm.

The oeuvre of Johan Scott is intense, where clear colours meet in contrasts. But the intensity is not discouraging, on the contrary, it feels warm and embracing. The fields are sometimes experienced as scratchy, and one can imagine how the hand slides over the surface where both peaks and valleys take form. Almost as if cave painting and graffiti have united and contrasted with this loud oil painting.

Like graffiti, there is a rawness and an authenticity here. But the big difference lies in the detailed work and how each brush stroke is laid with the utmost precision. Nothing is left to chance. It is authentic in the sense that there’s nothing hidden or underlying. These qualities also evoke the feeling of vulnerability and beauty. Rather than motifs, you see entire events and scenarios pulsating through the works.

Scott’s paintings are slow and looking at them takes time, at least if you want to uncover all the layers of mind and material concealed within them. They open up gradually and retain their secret for a long time. On the other hand, we don’t always know about Scott’s paintings. Sometimes they open up like revelations dumbfounding us.
– Timo Valjakka from the book “Johan Scott”

Scott paints with oil on polycarbonate where the painting is two-dimensional and could be called slow art. Slow in the sense that it is a well thought out and carefully worked painting that takes time and allows time to be taken. The works force one to stop and listen, feel the flow of emotions, and see motifs pass and come again. Art should evoke feelings, thoughts and constantly give us new things to discover and see. That is just what Johan Scott’s paintings are, slow but at the same time so well thought out and painterly.

Johan Scott was born in 1953 in Mariehamn, Åland, he lives and works in Stockholm. Scott studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm 1976–1981. Between 1997 – 2007 he was a professor at the Royal Academy of Arts and between 2002 – 2007 as vice chancellor. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 2002. Between 2014-2022, he was professor and pro-rector at Stockholm University of the Arts. Scott has been awarded several prizes and scholarships, such as P.S.1, New York 1983–1984, the Ars Fennica prize in 1992 and the Carnegie Art Award third prize in 2001. His exhibition history is very extensive with exhibitions both in Europe and the USA. His works are represented in several collections, including at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Kiasma Helsingfors and Gothenburg Art Museum, Gothenburg.

Works in the exhibition: