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Biography
Richard Scott (1968 -)
Richard Scott is a renowned British artist living, in Cape Town South Africa.
He started his career in 2001 at Hout Bay Gallery where 25 works sold in 6 weeks. To date Scott has produced over 5000+ artworks with 4000 painting sales, 1500 in print sales and 1000 sketches. Scott's work has appeared on the auction circuit. See details
.
Scott works prolifically with in acrylic on canvas, print, sketch and sculpture. Scott also works in ceramic and spray paint.
Scott has had 109 global exhibitions (29 of them solo) in South Africa, United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and the United States.
Scott lays his success on key people in his career; John Hargitai of Hout Bay Gallery Cape Town, Joshua Rossouw of Rossouw Modern Hermanus, Charl Bezuidenhout of World Art Gallery Cape Town, Carl Smyth of The Carl Smyth Collection Cape Town, Vincent van Zon of The Netherlands, Jean and Karine Hermans Belgium, Jeff Jaffe of New York.
Scott has collectors in every corner of the globe. There are with 3 collectors in excess of 100 works in their collection and 12 collectors with 50 works. There are a hundred collectors with 10 plus works in their collection.
Scott has partnered with lifestyle brands to produce a range of art and product. The most prolific is Vespa. Sagaform, Absa Cape Epic, Woodstock Brewery, Lomond wine farm and Rolling Woods Surfboards.
Scott has worked with The Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation and the Arch himself on a body of work entitled Black White Red Yellow.
Scott donates over 30 works a year to Charitable Organizations to help them raise funds for their cause. More importantly Scott immerses himself in on Charity each year to expose them to the art world, have fun and generate funds, for their cause, in the process. Scott has worked with Songo, Chaeli Mycroft, MAD Leadership Foundation, Orion Organization,
Kids Rights and Mellon Educate.
Studies
- 1989 - Educated at Birch Acres Primary and Norkem Park High, Kempton Park. Remembers spending 4 years at school learning art. Didn't think art was fun at all until his last year with Mr. Fuel, who is first on the list of those responsible for Richard wanting to paint more. Matriculated in 1987. Spent 13 years brewing. No further formal art training.
- 1991 - Qualified Technical Illustrator.
- 2001 - Full time Artist.
- 2004 - Lithography Artist Press, Mpumalanga
- 2008 - Silkscreen Keip silkscreening, Johannesburg
- 2017 – German Language
Exhibitions
2002
- January - Hout Bay Gallery; Group Exhibition
- March - Bellville Association of Visual Arts
- April - Bay Art Gallery, Kalk Bay; Group Exhibition
- May - Knysna Fine Art Gallery; The Art of Colour Exhibition with Vgallery
- June - Art Channel Diversity 4 Exhibition
- June - Ekurhuleni Fine Arts Finalist Exhibition
2003
- March - Lennox Gallery, London; Exhibition with Vanessa Berlein
- June - AVA Gallery Cape Town; Members Exhibition
- July - Hout Bay Gallery; Group Exhibition
- August - Grosvenorvilla Art Gallery, Cape Town; Group Exhibition
- September - VEO Gallery ,Cape Town; Art De Waterkant Group Exhibition
- October - Brett Keble Awards (Inaugural), Cape Town; Finalist Exhibition
- December - VEO Gallery ,Cape Town; Exhibition with Chris Basson
- December - VEO Gallery ,Cape Town; Art of the Motorcycle - Harley-Davidson Centenary
2004
- January - Sue Lipschitz Gallery, Plettenberg Bay; Group Exhibition
- January - Rossouw Gallery Cape Town; White is a Colour Group Exhibition
- September - Solo at Winchester Mansions, Cape Town
- October - Brett Keble Awards 2004 Cape Town; Finalist Exhibition
- November - AVA Absolut Vodka 9 group exhibition
- November - Group exhibition at Muiz Studio, Muizenberg
- December - Group exhibition at MOJA MODERN, Johannesburg
- December - VEO Gallery ,Cape Town; Solo, Pop Goes The Easel
2005
- April - Rossouw Gallery Cape Town; Solo, Light Years Away
- May - Woolworths in store; group exhibition
- September - Moving Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium; Group Exhibition
- November - AVA Absolut Secret 10 - Absolut Finale
- December - VEO Gallery, Cape Town; Wavesacpes group exhibition
- December - KIZO Art Gallery, Kwazulu Natal; Solo
- December - VEO Gallery, Cape Town; Richard Scott invites Gavin Rain to exhibit with him
- December - 34LONG, Cape Town; group exhibition, East West
2006
- January - Worldart, Hamilton Russell, Hermanus; Solo
- February - Rossouw Gallery, Cape Town, An Evening of Erotica, Group Exhibition
- April - Hout Bay Gallery; Solo
- March - 34LONG, Cape Town; group exhibition, Metal
- July - CTICC, Solo, Supermodel 2006
- August - KIZO Art Gallery, Aston Martin Exhibitionroom, Sandton; Group Exhibition
- August - KIZO Art Gallery, Decorex, Johannesburg; Group Exhibition
- October - Moving Gallery, Leuven, Belgium; Speechless; Group Exhibition
- December - KIZO Art Gallery, Kwazulu Natal; Group Exhibition
- December - VEO Gallery, Cape Town; Wavesacpes; Group Exhibition
2007
- January - Worldart, Cape Town, Solo
- February - Kizo Art Gallery, Durban, Homemakers, Group Exhibition
- February - VEO Gallery, Cape Town, Wavesacpes, Group Exhibition
- March - Marlies Dekkers, Amsterdam, Open Closed
- April - Worldart, Johannesburg, Solo
- April - Kizo Art Gallery, Decorex Cape Town, Group Exhibition
- April - Cape Town School of Photography, Group Exhibition
- May - Winchester Mansions, Cape Town, Solo
- May - Rust-en-Vrede, Durbanville, Cape Town, Solo
- June - Worldart, Cape Town, Beauty and the Beasts, solo
- August - Kizo Art Gallery, Decorex JHB Galagher, AffordArt
- August - Kizo Art Gallery, Cape Town, Homemakers, Group Exhibition
- August - Kizo Art Gallery, Durban, Homemakers, Group Exhibition
- September - Paarl, Cultivaria, Die voël met die af vlerk, Group Exhibition
- September - Kizo, Durban The Heritage Exhibition, Group Exhibition
- October - Kizo Art Gallery, Heritage, Group Exhibition
- October - Kizo Art Gallery, Glamour Aid, Group Exhibition
- November - Hawaan Evening, Durban, Group Exhibition
- November - Kizo Art Gallery, Durban, Umdwebo Festival, Group Exhibition
2008
- January - Worldart, Cape Town, Solo
- January - Kizo Art Gallery, Durban, Oubaai, Group Exhibition
- February - VEO Gallery, Cape Town, Wavescapes, Group Exhibition
- February - Sexpo, Durban, Group Exhibition
- March - Demelza Prettejohn, England, Affordable Art Fair, London
- March - Worldart, Cape Town, Solo, Hypnotized
- March - Peacock Gallery, Franschoek, Solo Cottage Fromage
- April - Kizo, Durban, Erotica, Group Exhibition
- May - Demelza Prettejohn, England, Bristol Art Fair, Bristol
- May - Kizo, Durban, Ready Made, Group Exhibition
- July - Stephen Falcke, Decorex, Johannesburg
- August - Watercomfort, Johannesburg, Solo
- September - Kizo, Durban The Heritage Exhibition, Group Exhibition
- October - Demelza Prettejohn, England, Manchester Art Fair, Manchester
- November - Watercomfort, Johannesburg, Solo, VISI magazine
- November - Die Meul, Philadelphia, Cape Town, One day only art splash, Group Exhibition
2009
- February - Luca Carniato; Treviso, Italy; The South African Wave
- February - Lisa King; Cape Town; Group Exhibition
- March - Peacock Gallery, Franschoek, Solo Cottage Fromage
- March - Luca Carniato; Treviso, Italy; Gas Clothing Store Instore Exhibition
- March - Carniato; Treviso, Italy; Piola Instore Exhibition
- March - Demelza Prettejohn, England, Affordable Art Fair, London
- April - Imbizo Gallery, Balito, South Africa, Landscapes and Trees, Group Show
- April - Lisa King; Cape Town; Art on the Piazza, Group Exhibition
- May - Sexpo, Cape Town International Convention Centre, Solo Exhibition
- May - Imbizo Gallery, Balito, South Africa, Heritage Art Exhibition, Group Exhibition
2010
- March - Imbizo Gallery, Balito, South Africa, Shapes and Scapes, Group Exhibition
- March - Demelza Prettejohn, England, Affordable Art Fair, London
- March - Miart, Luca Carniato, Milan, Italy, Group Exhibition
- December - Felix Pakhuis, Antwerp, Belgium, Solo Exhibition
2011
- January - La Modella Nel Ritratto Contemporaneo, Italy, Group Show
- March - Demelza Prettejohn, England, Affordable Art Fair, London
- June - South Africa Meets the World, FORME d' ARTE, Venice Italy, Group Exhibition
2012
- September - Bill & Partner, Butzbach, Frankfurt, Germany, Vernissage, Solo Exhibition
- December - POP International, New York, at Miami Basel 2012, Think Big, Believe Bigger, Group Exhibition
2013
- April - Dutch Girls Have More Fun, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Solo Exhibition
- December - Joyride, Vespa, Waterfront, Cape Town, Solo Exhibition
2014
- January - Print Launch, Meerlust Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
- September - Joyride, Hyde Park, Johannesburg, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
- October - Joyride, Johannesburg, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
2015
- May - MAD Foundation Exhibition, Arabella Golf Estate, Hermanus, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
- July - Black, White, Red and Yellow. An imaginative exploration of the life and times of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in collaboration with the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. Cape Town Town Hall, South Africa, Colaborative Solo Exhibition
2016
- December - FOUR, Norwood, Johannesburg, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
2017
- June - Walker Bay Modern, Hermanus, South Africa, Group Exhibition
- November - ART-Gallery.be, Knokke, Belgium
2018
- January - Popup, Bagshot, Surrey, England, Solo Exhibition
- April - Popup, Butzbach, Germany, Solo Exhibition
- April - Joyride, Step Brothers, Cape Town, South Africa Solo Exhibition
- June - Popup, Frankfurt, Germany, Solo Exhibition
- June - Fynart, Walker Bay Modern, Hermanus, South Africa, Group Exhibition
- July - Trees, Klein Constantia Wine Farm, Cape Town, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
2019
- August to October - Desmond Tutu, Artscape, Cape Town, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
- December - Graffiti Girls, Art it is, Woodstock, Cape Town, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
- December - Graffiti Girls, Busicuit Mill, Woodstock, Cape Town, South Africa, Solo Exhibition
Media
Acrylic on canvas, oil on Canvas, print, sketch, sculpture, ceramic and spray paint.
Quotes
"Some people are born with the gift to speak in colours. One of those people is Richard Scott."
Gus Silber
"Richard values the creative process as highly as the finished product."
Andries Loots
"Richard, the voice of reason, pulling pretentious ideals off their proverbial pedestals and inspiring the 'lesser' considered to come to the artistic fore."
Claire Breukel
"For once, someone who has overcome the adversity of the rat race with real ability, has risen to the top."
Mark Gillman
"It became impossible not to buy the work immediately."
Marco Garbero
"Richard Scott is one of those artists whose name seems to be hyphenated - Richard Controversial-Scott. In my book, controversial is good - the word has been used about me a few times."
Brett Kebble
"I am sure that Richard's 'lateral thinking' approach to the processes of art is going to afford us with much amazement and amusement in future!"
Earle Parker
"Richard's work has probably been underestimated because of its apparent light-heartedness and charm."
Sue Lipschitz
"Richard has an almost impossible-to-satisfy desire to explore and to experiment."
Charl Bezuidenhout
For essays on Richard please refer to:
>www.richardscott.com/essays
Richard Scott by Gus Silber
Richard Scott never signs his paintings. He stamps them with a wooden letter-block, leaving a lowercase impression of his first name in the thick of the impasto paste.
It has become his hallmark, a gleeful flourish that evokes childhood memories of potato-print and finger-paint, as well as a signature of his unfettered ambition to leave a lasting mark on the world of popular art. But even from far across the room, you don't need to see the stamp to know that you're looking at a Richard.
Against bright lashings of colour, his blazing-white subjects - trees, lighthouses, landscapes, and mostly, the female semi-nude form - are etched in deep black line, defining his claim to fame as a master of Contemporary Art minimalism.
In 2001, he sold his first painting, Two Trees in a Field of Sky, to the Hout Bay Gallery near Cape Town for R300. Since then, he has produced more than 3,500 works, and the going price for an original acrylic on canvas is R400,000. And this is just the beginning.
"I will sell a painting one day for a million dollars," he says. He smiles as he says this, relishing his reputation as an outsider artist, a maverick who controls his career and his destiny on his own terms.
Aside from his editioned prints, which he sells from an online store, he sells most of his work directly to a growing body of international collectors.
A self-taught artist, unless you count his high school art classes with Mr Fuel, at Norkem Park High in Kempton Park, Richard enjoys the special luxury of life as an accidental painter. He took up the brush as a casual sideline after running his own companies in IT and website development, and from the start, his works have sold almost as quickly as he can produce them.
While his signature style has remained consistent over the years, he is a restless experimenter, mixing his media and leaving his mark on surfboards, cellphones, slip-slops, wine bottles and a hip and witty fleet of Vespa scooters. But perhaps his free-form approach to art is best showcased by his range of Studio Works, large-format collages that started as doodles and scribblings on a canvas in his studio in Melkbosstrand, Cape Town.
"I used to clean my brushes on the wall in the studio," he says. "Soon, those little brushstrokes evolved into spontaneous, organic works, so I put two screws and a canvas on the wall, and started covering the canvas in stuff."
Each Studio Work features a central semi-nude female figure, surrounded by the flotsam and jetsam of Richard's jet-setting life as an artist on the move. Everything from old credit cards, to beer-bottle labels, boarding passes, teabags, paintbrushes, and magazine covers - including one, cheekily, featuring his big money-making role-model, William Kentridge.
Richard never intended to sell the pieces - they were meant as mementoes and scrapbooks of his creative process - until one day a German collector walked into his studio, saw four of the works, and insisted on buying them on the spot.
"You have to give people what they want," says Richard. "If a customer walks into a BMW dealership, and he wants a silver BMW, you can't give him a blue one. That's how I work. I give people what they want." And what they want, more and more, as it turns out, is Richard Scotts.
He paints because it's a business, he paints because he has collectors, he paints because it takes him around the world. But more than anything else, he paints because it's fun. The joy in his work shines through, concealing the intense focus and discipline with which he crafts his distinctive style.
When it comes to his philosophy as a pop artist, Richard likes quoting Picasso - "Art is the lie that enables us to realise the truth"; "Everything you can imagine is real" - but his greatest lesson came from a man named Barney Pretorious, his boss at his first job as a technical illustrator.
"Barney said to me one day, you don't want to be a sheep, you want to be a shepherd. Take on the difficult stuff, not the easy stuff."
It isn't easy making a living, or even a sideline, as an artist, but Richard believes he has proved himself.
"I say to people, the train's coming," he says. "I'm not prepared to put you in the driving seat, but you can hook on your carriage and join me for the journey. If I tell you I'm going to sell pieces for a million, you'd better believe it, because the Richard Scott train is coming."
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