Art Tuesday

Scott Campbell (official blog and show blog)
Great Showdowns at Gallery 1988

I first discovered Scott C's artwork during one of Gallery 1988's Crazy 4 Cult shows. These art shows have been an annual tradition for this gallery. The gallery itself tends to focus on art that pertains to pop culture, particularly that of the 80s. The Crazy 4 Cult show features a variety of artists that have been chosen to contribute art that relates to films that are "cult classics." Scott C has contributed several pieces to the shows, as well as creating the show poster for the 2nd iteration of the show. This poster details a "family tree" of cult classic movies.

Scott just opened his own show in February at the gallery, titled "Great Showdowns." These "showdowns" have been some of his most popular paintings. He has produced hundreds of them and they can be viewed and purchased at the gallery or online. I love his almost child-like painting style. The fact that they are not photorealistic representations of the characters just adds to the whimsical nature. Most of the colors he uses are earth tones which I think also adds to the natural feel of his art. The characters featured in his paintings also always look happy to see each other, even if they are enemies in the movie. I appreciate how his interpretation of "showdown" does not necessarily mean that the characters are antagonists. Sometimes they just represent awesome meetings in film. Scott also uses anthropomorphic versions of non-sentient characters to rather humorous effect. Can you name all the movies featured in these showdowns?

 Scott has also contributed his amazing skills as art director for the independent game developer Double Fine. This company is headed by video game alum Tim Schafer.  Scott has helped work on the very fun and unique games Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. I love the fact that his art is able to be seen by even more people via video games. I look forward to seeing what else he produces over the years.