{"id":9555,"date":"2022-04-22T16:05:56","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T20:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/?p=9555"},"modified":"2022-04-27T10:26:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T14:26:11","slug":"scott-lyall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/scott-lyall\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Lyall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scott Lyall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scott Lyall<\/a> (b. 1964, Toronto) lives and works in Toronto and New York. <\/em>Scott Lyall combines drawing, painting, sculpture, and found objects into what he describes as a \u2018scenography without actors,\u2019 or \u2018plastic supports for an almost clientless sense of design.\u2019 His production revolves around issues related to sculptural display, the relationships between graphic processes, and the design legacies of conceptualism.<\/p>\n

While Lyall\u2019s earlier work involved installations created from construction and everyday materials such as particleboard, styrofoam, and other ephemeral fragments, his recent practice is predominantly comprised of graphic assemblages and printouts produced without direct mediation of an image. Referencing Bruno Latour, the artist describes his Nudes<\/em> and EVE<\/em>s series as \u201cdesign all the way down,\u201d a statement that resonates with Mark Rothko\u2019s use of pigmented gessoes to achieve what he called \u201ccolor all the way down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originating from the basic and most abstract unit of the digital realm\u2014the single color pixel\u2014the pale hues of Lyall\u2019s color wave paintings and stickers are formed through a method of mathematical interpolation that generates a unique and potentially infinite bitstream. The resulting information is sent directly to the print heads, which apply sheer layers of ink such that the gradient color-deposits are mixed directly on the substrate. The immediate relationship between the numerical formula and the printer is akin to a \u201cfauve” effect of releasing color from the received image. Embodying a movement from pure quantity\u2014a digital field of dispersions and exchange\u2014to form, these works are inherently split objects that exist first immaterially, and materially in the last instance. They address the informational fetish of recent art and the dissolution of visible signs.<\/p>\n

The Nudes <\/em>stand slightly detached from the wall, affixed to hand-painted monochrome MDF panels of corresponding dimensions, which are in turn attached to the wall directly \u2013 digital dust on canvas, one might say, over compressed and solidified wood powder. The pieces combine ink and its erasure in canvases subjected to multiple passes through a UV-based printer. The result is a subtle residual \u2018tan\u2019 that suggests an index of rays \u2018beyond color\u2019 that affect the tonal assemblage. Lyall describes the EVE <\/em>vinyl adhesive sheets as \u2018thin reliefs,\u2019 and relates the printed posters to a generalized artistic space between painted, sculptural, and architectural forms. A glued sticker on one side of the panel and a spray of cartridge inks on the other establish a relationship between plastic and graphic determinations of the print. The interaction of the surfaces of the ultrathin paste-up and the fa\u00e7ade of a smooth wall creates an implication of depth. Because of the use of non-archival inks in the instance of the adhesive sheets, each printout will eventually fade to white, thus merging with and disappearing into the wall that houses it. In this sense, these works exist beyond the traditional confines of the wall and architecture more generally.\u00a0 A further constitutive feature of the file is its capacity to circulate electronically freely around the globe and beyond before the moment of incarnation. The owners of unique bitstreams are then entrusted to printout new iterations of the color fields at will. This is painting engaging the digital realm and pushing it to the limit of its material and conceptual possibilities by reducing it to a sequence of three discrete and subjective gestures: 1. The random selection of an entry point among the 284 million color options. 2. The algorithmic unleashing of the infinite expansion of the file. 3. The final decision to cut the color progression in a particular place, that is finding the edges of the gradient before outputting its content onto a chosen substrate. As such, the painting object is suspended until the last impulse of incarnation.<\/p>\n

In line with the dehierarchization proposed by monochrome painting in the 1950s, Lyall considers his work to be a function of its interaction with the surrounding space. The environment provides a space of aleatory, open representation, which might be captured by Cage\u2019s description of Rauschenberg’s White Paintings as \u201cairports for the lights, shadows, and particles.” To the most limited form of commercially printed material, Lyall adds the speculative image of mental projection without an end. The works become advertisements for this \u2018grey matter.\u2019 In Lyall\u2019s words, \u201cIt will be whatever reality does not prevent it from becoming\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Lyall earned his MFA from the California Institute of the Art in 1993. His solo and two-person exhibitions include <\/em>Superstar at Miguel Abreu Gallery<\/em> (2019), Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto (2018), <\/em>DRAGONS at Campoli Presti, London (2017),<\/em> Dragons. SLStudio.clone 1\/2\/1 \u2013 SLStudio.clone 1\/10\/1 at Campoli Presti, Paris (2017), <\/em>Black Glass at Miguel Abreu Gallery (2015)<\/em>, \u03bf\u1f34\u03bd\u03bf\u03c0\u03b1 \u03c0\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd [<\/em>Winedark Sea] at Campoli Presti, London (2014), <\/em>Indiscretion at Miguel Abreu Gallery<\/em> (2013), Hasta Mana\u00f1a at Greene Naftali (2011)<\/em>, An Immigrant Affection at Miguel Abreu Gallery (2010), <\/em>The Color Ball at The Power Plant in Toronto (2008), <\/em>the little contemporaries at SculptureCenter (2007), and an eponymous exhibition at Greene Naftali (1996), among others. In 2012, he participated in<\/em> Anti-Establishment, curated by Johanna Burton, at the CCS Bard Hessel Museum. Previously Lyall\u2019s work was included in group shows internationally such as <\/em>Ballistic Poetry, Herm\u00e8s Foundation, Brussels (2016); <\/em>Schnitte im Raum, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2011);<\/em> Tentation d\u2019Hazard, The Montreal Biennial (2011);<\/em> New York to London and Back: The Medium of Contingency, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2011); <\/em>Collat\u00e9ral, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers (2009); <\/em>The Lining of Forgetting, curated by Xandra Eden, Austin Museum of Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum; and <\/em>SITE Santa Fe, 7th<\/sup> International Biennial (2008). Lyall\u2019s work is in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n

Scott Lyall\u2019s essay <\/em>\u201cFrom \u201cThe Surface of Design\u201d to the Poet-Engineer?\u201d<\/a> as part of <\/em>The Poet-Engineers exhibition reader can be found on the Miguel Abreu Gallery website.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Talent 29, 2022. Gold nano particles and acrylic gel medium on ink printed glass, mirror. 48 x 67 1\/2 x 2 inches (121.9 x 171.5 x 5.1 cm) \u00a9 Scott Lyall, Courtesy Miguel Abreu Gallery. Photo: Stephen Faught.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Nanofoil (SLStudio.clone_1\/16\/2), 2018. UV-engraved photonic structures in aluminum foil, polymer coating, casein painted frame. 3 5\/8 x 2 11\/16 inches (9.2 x 6.8 cm). Framed dimensions: 13 x 12 inches (33 x 30.5 cm) \u00a9 Scott Lyall, Courtesy Miguel Abreu Gallery. Photo: Stephen Faught.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Lyall Scott Lyall (b. 1964, Toronto) lives and works in Toronto and New York. Scott Lyall combines drawing, painting, sculpture, and found objects into what he describes as a \u2018scenography without actors,\u2019 or \u2018plastic supports for an almost clientless sense of design.\u2019 His production revolves around issues related to sculptural display, the relationships between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/wybcxlogoforweb-big-1sq-e1491800568261.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9582,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9555\/revisions\/9582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/praxis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}