Scott Eakin: The Buoyant Force

ARTIST TALK | SATURDAY APRIL 6 | 12 PM

Marcia Wood Gallery is pleased to present a solo presentation of work by Atlanta-based artist Scott Eakin. This is Eakin's fourth solo show with the gallery. In these new works on paper and acrylic paintings on panel, Eakin channels his language of geometric abstraction to capture a humor and lightness the artist has pursued since the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Using his signature playful glints of bright color and ever-humorous titles such as 'Brando's Wig' and his works on paper series he calls 'Buoys' Eakin provides a welcome respite through creative exploration. 

"Archimedes discovered the buoyant force in physics around 250 BCE and wrote the formula Fb = pgV that quantifies buoyancy.   Measurable in the physical world, buoyancy is more abstract when thinking about the force that holds us up in our lives. 

Like many of us I now mark time as before and after the pandemic. The things that have kept me afloat the past few years are family, friends, humor, the natural world and art.  Covid manifested in my art practice, showing up as a quest for buoyancy, lightness, humor. 

Since early in the pandemic I have focused on a series of small paper and clay board pieces I call Buoys. These began as stenciled, four-color geometric patterns.  They have in common a boundary, or horizon, and an object that floats.   Superimposed on this framework, ghost forms, irrational geometry and pick-up sticks surround and infuse the buoys.

As the smaller works unfolded, their character influenced the larger paintings. Elements I call tools and ladders have pulled forward assertively.  These forms have grown larger and louder, taking over the foreground. The paintings are less restrained, more insistent, and maybe even more buoyant. "

-- Scott Eakin, 2024