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Scott Elk

The Mourners Diptych

The Mourners Diptych

PAINTING

Scott Elk, an Australian artist now based in the USA, explores connection to people and place through diverse mediums like ceramics, drawing, and soundscapes. His work celebrates contrast and materiality, creating self-referential "worlds" that reflect personal experiences and inspire curiosity about life.

Size: 168 cm (H) x 213 cm (W)

Only 1 available

View: In the gallery

Artwork Details

Materials
Acrylic, Oil, and Charcoal on Canvas

Size
168 cm (H) x 213 cm (W)

Framing
Unframed

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FAQ

Does the artwork include the frame?

The artwork is Unframed. Sometimes we do show the artwork in frame and out of frame to give an idea of how it would look. Expand the "Artwork Details" above, to learn more about the artwork.

Is this a real artwork?

Yes. This is an original one-off artwork, Acrylic, Oil, and Charcoal on Canvas. We do use digital technology to frame the artworks and/or position them in-situ (home environments) for the purpose of helping you visualise the look and feel of the work.

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Any applicable taxes and import duties for your country are solely your responsibility and payable direct to the courier. Overseas collectors do not pay our Australian 10% GST tax (confirmed at checkout). We recommend providing your mobile/cell number at checkout to help facilitate payment of any applicable taxes and/or duties.

$8,500.00 AUD
$8,500.00 AUD
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Artist Statement

My recent work has been influenced by the Australian landscape and thinking about the context we come across the landscape genre in our everyday lives. The inclusion of wallpaper in the display of my recent work is significant, placing my work within an environment of domesticity. This wallpaper I have hand-painted with acrylic paint, using my hands to spread the liquid paint across the mylar-coated resistant paper surface and my fingers as mark-making tools, dragging out long diagonal lines.

The abstracted landscape created serves as an energetic backdrop extending the world created within my paintings and ceramics, recalling the colours and forms of landscapes I have passed through recently on road trips from Sydney to Adelaide in Australia, and the mid-west of America to Canada. These trips were part of drives to draw and paint the landscape as I worked on my Dusk + Dust series of artworks. This series was initiated by the loss of my father and was a meditation on grief and the processing of grief. In this series, life is represented as a landscape we are moving across, and colour as a remnant of that life. This work is an embodiment of these themes of grief while speaking about the beauty, harshness, and vitality of uniquely Australian landscapes contrasted with snow landscapes of Northern America.

The funeral urn form I am using in my ceramics is one recognised today as a contemporary funeral urn form, although the form has been used for thousands of years in various iterations, right back to ancient Egypt and their ceramic canopic organ jars. In ancient Greece, the kantharos was used to drink wine from in celebration as well as symbolically linking to ideas of resurrection and rebirth. Although I am not expecting the viewer to know this specifically, the kantharos does look like a trophy, and this we positively associate with celebration. The combination of the funeral urn (death) inside the kantharos (celebration) is meant to be a thought-provoking juxtaposition for contemplation.

My work is about connection to people and connection to place.

To express an idea, I work across mediums to find the best fit for my concept; often starting with words on paper or drawings, to paintings, ceramic works, printmaking, and soundscapes.

Central to my art practice is the exploration of contrast: the movement between light and dark, hard and soft, focused and blurry.

My work celebrates the joy of the medium, exploring the materiality of charcoal, paint, ink, clay, and sound. Each medium allows me to discover what it does best, playing within its unique qualities. Drawing is a process I pass through to reach an end point, using it to sketch ideas, write words, explore forms, and play with proportions.

My work helps me understand the world and my place in it by analysing personal experiences through a cycle of writing, drawing, and reflecting on my creations. It is often self-referential, creating a "hall of mirrors" effect: an observational sketch may lead to a ceramic sculpture, a painting inspired by a soundscape, or a screen-print derived from an experience.

As artists, I believe we create our own worlds for comfort—places with their own rules, logic, and values. This constant arranging and rearranging of ideas and themes helps me understand what’s important and keeps me engaged as I move forward with my art practice.

Scott Elk

About the artist

Scott Elk

Scott Elk is an artist, educator, and curator from Sydney, Australia, exploring the world through ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, and sound.

With a background in visual arts, Scott’s disillusionment with the commercialisation of his creative energy pushed him to pursue art full time, focusing on personal projects and causes he believes in. His diverse mediums have guided his professional experiences and teaching roles at leading art institutions, aiming to expand his knowledge as a lifelong student.

Often working in series, Scott’s art crosses disciplines to tell stories. His technical proficiency reflects the long hours honing his craft, with each piece contributing to a larger narrative. His works, driven by personal recollections and moments of intense emotion, convey enthusiasm and curiosity about life. Passionate about the materiality of his mediums, Scott embraces the creative process like a child with a pack of crayons, using every colour to express his love for art.

Scott Elk's Collection

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