Paul Scott Road Island School of Design Exibition

Exhibition of New American Scenery at Rhode Island School of Design

Alturas Foundation is pleased to support the current exhibition of Raid the Icebox Now with Paul Scott: New American Scenery, at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, from September 13, 2019 -to September 6, 2020.

The exhibition juxtaposes early 19th-century Staffordshire ceramic transferwares drawn from the shelves of RISD Museum storage with new artwork created by Scott during his Alturas Foundation residency.  New American Scenery melds historic printed tableware, altered antique ceramics, and reclaimed Syracuse China plates with new screen prints to update early transferware subjects for the 21st century.

Staffordshire transferware with images of American landscapes became hugely desirable objects in the 19th century, and at that time, mass-produced industrial tableware was elevated within museum hierarchies to rival the finest Meissen, Sevres, and Chinese porcelain.   Scott’s New American Scenery artwork, created for during his Alturas Foundation residency draws attention to the beauty, significance, and influence of original transferware material while examining the postindustrial themes of 21st-century America. These include industrial dereliction, borders, the physical manifestations of climate change, energy generation and consumption, and the ongoing legacies of invasion, slavery, and racism.

https://risdmuseum.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/raid-icebox-now-paul-scott