Arden Scott

Inspired by the sea and the myriad manmade vessels that ply it, Arden Scott has been producing semi-abstract, mixed-media installations, sculptures, cardboard collages, and drawings of ships and their various parts since the 1960s. She summarizes her practice with the same economy and elegance that she applies to her work: “Brancusi said all sculpture is water. Good enough for me.” Scott began her career scavenging Manhattan dumpsters for discarded sails and lengths of tubing, which she transformed into immersive abstract environments. After relocating to Long Island, she became versed in shipbuilding and welding, and began constructing the delicate, powerful sculptures of boats, canoes, and other craft for which she is known. Like drawings in space, her sculptures seem simultaneously archaic and contemporary, serving as metaphors for the endlessness of time and space suggested by the sea.