MICHAEL SCOGGINS  *ART STAR

January 10, 2014 – February 19, 2014 

Guest Spot at THE REINSTITUTE  is proud to present  ART STAR, a solo exhibition by Michael Scoggins. Opening Friday January 10, 2014, the works will be on view through February 19, 2014. A discussion on the topic of  Sustainable Practices will be held in conjunction with the closing on February 19, 2014, 5pm-7pm.

ART STAR, a solo exhibition of new works by Michael Scoggins, examines the artist’s psyche with respect to career stardom. Like a page out of a notebook, Scoggins’ insight into political Americana is voiced by his alter ego Michael S.,  a child-like persona created by Scoggins. While Scoggins’ inspiration is based on comics and superheros, which are generally morally monochromatic in nature, Scoggins confronts the realism of current issues with a bliss of complex satire and irony.  In ART STAR, Scoggins turns his sights to the art world and it’s eagerness to cash-in on social, market, and pop culture trends.

Art schools champion increasing enrollment and traditional arts institutions desperately struggle to avoid alienating the general public. Within this context, there are growing misconceptions about the path to obtaining a “career artist” status.  As the art stardom zeitgeist settles in the minds of young, eager practitioners, the reality of “making it big” consumes the artist’s psyche. These art world antics reflect the rhetoric of an unsettled institutional mode, which resemble a lead box of Kryptonite for those who are naive enough to think that artists are in control of their own fates.

Michael Scoggins was born in Washington, DC in 1973 and gained an MFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006. In 2003 Michael attended the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Michael has gained international recognition and gallery representation in Atlanta, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Vienna and Seoul. His works have been added to some notable collections including, but not limited to, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Michael has had works exhibited in over twenty solo shows, fifty curated group exhibitions, and written about in countless publication