Pagoda

Scott Troxel draws on the aesthetics of bygone technology and the forward-looking designs of the Atomic Age and mid-century modernism to make dynamic, retrofuturist wooden sculptures that evoke nostalgia for the past as much as they look to the future. Fascinated by the way pieces of technology, culture, and design reveal their age, Scott aims to make works that cannot be pinned to a specific era.

He is a mixed media wall sculptor that works primarily with wood and paint and sometimes incorporates metal, reclaimed wood, found objects and man-made materials like PVC and Azek. Scott attended Temple University and got his degree in film, although originally an art major, and ended up pursuing a career in product development, industrial design and brand management. At age 43 he started working on his art again and after a few years, he had enough work, momentum and success to transition to being a full time artist.

Scott’s work is inspired by design and technology throughout the twentieth century, such as mid-century modernism, the Atomic Age, and art deco. In terms of what his work is trying to say, he tends to expand upon Frank Stella’s famous quote “What you see is what you see.” Scott states “While the viewer tends to bring his or her experiences to my work and “find” something familiar in it, my goal is to create art that features strong composition, balance, color, form and movement. My work relies heavily on these pillars. I then incorporate themes of aging, organic versus man-made, and new versus old in the sense of how we engage with technology, design, and aesthetics across generations. Specifically, I use the example of mid-century modern design. It has the rare ability to be timeless yet dated, modern but retro, organic and grounded but still futurist and otherworldly. I find this concept fascinating, and it is the foundation of what I try to achieve in my work. I want it to feel both modern and bold but perhaps from another era—when it was cutting edge, before time passed it by and changed the definition of “new or modern.”

Currently Scott lives and works as a full-time artist at his home, studio and woodshop by the sea in Coastal New Jersey. His work is are held in private collections across the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America. Additionally, his work is corporate collections such as Hilton, Capitol One, Price WaterHouse Cooper, Marriot, Embassy Suites, Westin, Stratosphere Las Vegas, Wyndham, Westin, Hotel Del Coronado, The Shard London and Four Seasons. He has exhibited at Scope Miami, Art Wynwood, The Other Art Fair, and Texas Contemporary.