Scott David Isenbarger

BIOGRAPHY

I was born (1981) and raised in rural Indiana. I recently moved to New York from San Francisco with my wife Lauren Carly Shaw, who is an artist as well. We live in Bushwick with our dog George. I am a painter that also works out of Brooklyn. I make large colorful paintings that draw heavily from post modern and surrealist histories. I attended Indiana University in Bloomington where I earned a BA in English and a BFA in Painting and was awarded the Harry Engels Scholarship for painting. I later earned my MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute where I was awarded a Presidential Fellowship. I have exhibited in museums and galleries nationally, and have artwork in several private collections. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My paintings can be characterized by their fusion of classical figuration and surrealist abstraction. Enigmatic compositions utilize archetypal humans and animals within familiar yet otherworldly spaces. I employ parody and satire with strong sugary colors to act as a foil to the recurring themes of misguided masculinity and apathy. Often implicating myself in the scenario, I both question my place in art history and identify as an active participant. Besides an interest in a “masculine archetype,” I am more widely interested in spaces of the unconscious, dream spaces, liminal spaces and the characters that reside therein. Furthermore I am intrigued by how these personal mythologies inform and affect identity.