Scooter LaForge, New York, USA
Scooter LaForge is a full-time artist living in New York City. In 2015, he was featured in shows at the Leslie-Lohman Museum in New York, the Friedrichshof Museum in Vienna, and the Spiritmuseum/Absolut Art Collection in Sweden. His current solo show, Invitation to Nothingness, is on currently being shown at the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco.
Last fall, LaForge was commissioned to create garments for Madonna’s performance of her single “Bitch I Am Madonna” on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Debbie Harry have all worn items from his clothing line.
Artforum, Vogue, Vogue Italia, Vogue Ukraine, V Magazine, T Magazine, W Magazine, Billboard and Spirit & Flesh are among the publications that have recently featured LaForge’s art.
He also presented a solo show at the Howl! Happening Gallery in New York, which Autre ranked as one of the top ten exhibits of 2015.
The artist has recently collaborated with Belgian fashion designer Walter Van Bierendonck, supplying 20 paintings as images to be incorporated into the fabric of his men’s wear line. He worked in conjunction with Norwegian painter Bjarne Melgaard in the creation of sculptures for an exhibit. LaForge was chosen to be a keynote speaker at the Montreal Fashion & Design Festival, and presented a solo show at the Galerie MX in the same city.
In 2015, he was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation award. Commenting on his exploration of context, Forbes magazine wrote he has found “a new art medium in clothing.”
To that effect, LaForge was commissioned to contribute to a Patricia Field art/fashion retail installation within Commes des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo’s Dover Street Market concept store. The space housed his sculptures as well as garments incorporating painting . LaForge has worked closely with Field since her brick and mortar days and was recently featured in her Art/Fashion exhibit at Howl! Happening Gallery in New York’s East Village. He remains a fixture of her current venture, an online clothing art gallery.
For a current price list of artworks by the artist, see this link & other available works:
http://111minnagallery.com/invitation-to-nothingness-scooter-laforge-solo-show/
PRESS:
Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamlehrer/2015/08/04/artist-scooter-laforge-has-found-a-new-art-medium-in-clothing-taking-his-career-to-new-heights/#3c39bc48c5cf
New York Times Magazine:
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/scooter-laforge-walter-van-beirendonck/?_r=1
Patricia Field:
http://patriciafield.com/collections/scooter-laforge-for-patricia-field
Fierth:
Art Critical:
Former Statement:
I live and paint in a tiny apartment in the East Village in New York.
I am a starving artist who eats black beans and tuna fish out of the can. I love punks, wierdos, femme tops, and butch bottoms. My apartment always smells like oil paint and dirty socks. I make tee shirts and sometimes do ghost drawing for peanuts characters to make money. I know I am popular in Japan. Every once in a while I am lucky enough to sell a painting. I am covered in tattoos and love homemade tattoos. My heroes are Popeye, Witches & Monsters, Cats, Bunnies, Bears, Owls, and Birds. I am not politically correct and sometimes I fart in public. I don’t have a tv or a computer. Most of my time is spent painting and reading comics. Next time you are in New York stop by my studio for some coffee or tea… I love visitors I promise I will light some insence” – Scooter LaForge. 2009
After receiving his painting degree at the University of Arizona, Scooter LaForge became legendary in the art scene in San Francisco. Having built up an impressive painting career in San Francisco, he packed up his bags and moved to New York City.
Scooter presently lives and paints in his art studio in Manhattan’s famous East Village. He has shown at numerous galleries around the Big Apple, such at Exit Art, Wooster Projects and White Columns to name a few.
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Scooter LaForge / CV
b. 1971, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Lives and works in New York City, USA
Education
BFA, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 1993
Selected Solo exhibitions
2012
Super Powers and Special Abilities, Munch Gallery, NY
2009
New Paintings, La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
New York Monster, Envoy Enterprises, New York, NY
Nature’s Clown, Envoy Enterprises, New York, NY
Destroy All Monsters, Live Fast, New York, NY
2007
Land of Enchantment, Kanvas Lounge Gallery, New York, NY
2005
Combines, 12 Little West 12th Street Gallery, New York, NY
2004
MAGIC, San Angel Folk Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2003
No Sleep ‘till Brooklyn, Landing, Brooklyn, NY
2002
Suicidal Tendencies, Build, San Francisco, CA
Selected Group exhibitions
2012
Wolfpack: Manhattan to Manchester. Cube Gallery, Manchester UK
Scooter LaForge/Christopher Moss, Theodore:ART, Brooklyn NY
Fountain Art Fair, Munch Gallery, New York, NY
Flesh Garden, YESSR4, Buenos Aries
2011
Dirty Show, City Center Motel, Los Angeles, CA
Tattoo You, Munch Gallery, New York, NY
BBBBAD, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, NY
QUEER FROM ZERO TO A HUNDRED, TNC Gallery, New York, NY
WOLFPACK!, Splatterpool Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Drake Hotel, Toronto Canada
2010
The London Biennale, Christopher Henry Gallery, New York, NY
Tom of Finland and then some, Feature inc., New York, NY
Power to the People, Feature inc., New York, NY
Lingering Whispers, Crypt, St Pancras Church, London, England
I See Myself in You, Bronx Art Space, Bronx, NY
Gasoline Rainbow, CS13, Cincinnati, OH
The Salacious Salon, Pool Art Fair, Gerschwin Hotel, New York, NY
2009
Out of Order, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
The Thin Veil, Antebellum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007
The Comic Uncanny, Shaheen Gallery, Cleveland, OH
Remember Jerome Caja, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2 x 2, Museo Regional de Michoacan, Michoacan, Mexico
2006
Scope Hampton, Stephanie Theodore Dealer, New York, NY
Cooper Union Group Show, New York, NY
Portraits for Marc Jacobs Windows, New York, NY
2005
Wooster Projects, New York, NY
4 x 4, Gallery Artopia, Albuquerque, NM
2004
Response, Exit Art, New York, NY
2001
Frenzy, The Luggage Store, San Francisco, CA
2000
Confess, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Bibliography: Reviews
Two Coats of Paint, Review for “I am not monogamous, I heart poetry, Feature INC, 2011
T Magazine, New York Times Sunday, August, 2011
NUMERO MAGAZINE, June/July 2011
K48, No. 8 ABRAK48DABRA, 2011
Nally, JD, “Out of Order: Surfing on Confusion’s Clashing Waves.” Leaves of Glass.bolgspot.com 2010.
Utter, Douglas Max. “The Comic Uncanny.” Art Papers, March/April 2008.
Menconi, Lilia, “Laugh In.” Phoenix New Times 2007
Friedman, Roberto, “Whoop-de-damn-do!” Bay Area Reporter, 2007
Collections
Barneys NYC, New York, NY
Bellevue Hospital, New York, NY
MORE:
Scooter LaForge: Life Is Art; Art Is Life
Originally from Las Cruces, New Mexico, Scooter LaForge is one of New York City’s most mysterious characters. A friendly, approachable painter with an easygoing style, he constantly code-switches, weaving his fascination with words and everyday details into conversations that are often about conversation itself. His painting works on the same principle. The brushstrokes are the point—frozen movement that reveals moving targets of “meaning.” In his Gesamtkunstwerk apartment, the artist answers some of our questions.
Interview Jorge Clar Photography Christian Trippe
JC: Good day! How are you?
SL: Good day; I am well, thank you kindly! And yourself?
JC: I am well, thank you kindly. Are you going to the studio today?
SL: Yes, I am going there shortly.
JC: How wonderful. What was I going to say… Is it important for you to have a separate space for painting?
SL: Yes. For me, it’s important to have a sense of discipline. But a discipline that comes easy. I don’t really think about it. Essentially, I wake up, and I feel the need to paint. The studio provides a framework. I paint practically every day of my life. I have a cup of coffee with half and half, eat oatmeal, and then I’m off to the studio.
JC: And your apartment is all covered with murals…
SL: Well, in 2020, I stayed mostly in my apartment for about three weeks, and I was looking for something to do. One day, tidying up, I found a wooden box full of paints that was put away under the sink. The paints were dried up, but I brought them back to life and got to work. I had already painted a portrait of Dave Gahan, the lead singer of Depeche Mode, wearing a crown, as he appears in the Enjoy the Silence video. I started riffing from there…painting characters and environments. I remember how I painted a candle and a teacup next to a 1940s table. When I took a picture of the vignette, the table and the wall became one.
JC: How do the news and social media affect your decisions in the studio?
SL: I like listening to the radio. Sometimes I listen to 1010 WINS-AM in the morning. I have certain radios I like to use. I love pocket transistor radios; my dad gave me a General Electric Superadio that picks up distant signals. It’s a wall of sound for me. I don’t really listen to the news. Nowadays, information surrounds us everywhere, and topics sometimes flow into the work. Lately I’ve been reading books on stoicism that ended up informing what I do—giving me a certain freedom, a spontaneity…
“My energy goes into painting, and it attracts people. There are no coincidences.”
JC: Do you plan your canvases very much?
SL: No, I sometimes have a theme—more like a point of departure—in mind. I dip the brush into the paint and let it move. Lines turn into faces, or trees, or birds; I anchor the composition, and off I go. Automatically. My Sculpture show at Theodore gallery came out of the blue, after having worked on large-scale paintings for a few months. I collect things from the street: old shirts, scraps, so-called trash, small objects, and they become something else. I suppose it is all infused by a Calder-like spirit…invention with the available. Finding a sense of balance, going against it, and then starting over. Some people say I “attack” the canvas with the esprit of a graffiti writer.
JC: How do you define “career” as a fine artist?
SL: Hm, I don’t consider the idea of “career” very much. Painting is what I do. I know there is free will, and I have chosen to do this. It keeps me concentrated on developing something, on creating. I enjoy meeting people and seeing what they do; every person is in their own world. My energy goes into painting, and it attracts people. There are no coincidences. When I’m satisfied with a particular work, a door opens for it to be shown. The idea of “networking” is about being in the moment and having a connection… Talking about anything: the weather, the color of socks. Observing the way a person talks and moves provides much information. I’m like an antenna.
“Lately I’ve been reading books on stoicism that ended up informing what I do…”
JC: How else would you describe yourself?
SL: I would call myself a tube, a conduit. The ego hovers as an interface through which I interact with “reality,” that grand illusion. People talk about the coming prevalence of virtual reality, but I think technology—faced with people’s awakening—falls into a balance. Reality is always virtual, in a way. Getting back to the notion of the conduit: from a void beyond the ego, information comes forth. This information gets translated through the paint. It is an often intangible language. I sometimes feel like my “heroes” move my body… I am, therefore, in love with the Old Masters; my work evokes certain aspects of them. Being a painter is a profession and a mission. As a professional, I might sometimes talk in terms of “as we like to say in the industry, this is a triptych, etc.” But the mission is always a mystery.
“Essentially, I wake up, and I feel the need to paint.”
JC: So if the line between art and life is indivisible, and you embrace art in all of its expressions, would you say you are always performing?
SL: Well, it’s kind of inevitable, and it’s also a good thing…all of us are performing constantly. What’s different is the level of awareness, but ultimately we are all the same.
“I’m like an antenna.”
JC: What else do you think your painting is doing?
SL: It is alchemizing. Things are transforming before your very eyes. The painting holds space and transforms space. It honors aspects of life, holds them, and then lets them go.
