" Kids and adults can be cruel.  One would think, as we get older we actually “grow up” but in many cases our behavior is similar, only the intensity of the cruelty changes.  We become more efficient, more cunning, and more brutal.

My work is an investigation.  I study the past, my past and try to figure out why we as a society still lash out at one another as adults, why we form cliques, exclude and hurt each other as children do.  I question maturity and the importance of “being mature” in our culture.

I use the large torn pieces of notebook paper to deceive the viewer, to lure them into a nostalgic calm.  They are written and drawn from a child’s point of view, but the content is very much a focus on the adult and how little really changes.

I question society from within.  Through the use of this format I express my opinions and my experiences with growing up in American culture."

Michael Scoggins

A page out of a notebook, with its blue lines and spiral bound edges, is a familiar image.  This is the primary vehicle used to connect with the viewer.  It is enlarged to give this common object a since of importance and create a new perspective.  The text and drawing placed upon the large page deal with the influences of American culture and how it has shaped my life.  The paper is torn, crumpled and folded to give it a history and makes it more of an object expanding the definition of traditional drawing. 

Michael Scoggins was born in Washington D.C in 1973 and gained an MFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006. He has attended various prestigious residencies including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, and Fountainhead in Miami. Michael has gained international recognition and gallery representation in Atlanta, Miami, New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Seoul, Vienna and more. His works have been added to some notable collections including, but not limited to, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Michael has had works exhibited in over twenty solo shows, fifty curated group exhibitions, and written about in numerous publications. He currently lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York.