SCOT HEYWOOD
SPEED OF LIGHT
WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY
SCOT HEYWOOD SPEED OF LIGHT
SCOT HEYWOOD
William Turner Gallery is pleased to introduce an exciting debut exhibition: Scot Heywood, Speed of Light. The exhibitions will run from July 13thAugust 31st, 2024.
Scot Heywood presents paintings that at first appear to adhere to the tenets of formal, hard-edged abstraction. Yet upon closer examination, one begins to see how his work challenges and often breaks with these assumptions. Heywood brings a subtle sculptural sensibility to his work, where shape and proportion provide the structural armature for color and upend expected formalities.
Born in Los Angeles in 1951, Scot Heywood has been investigating geometric abstraction for over forty years. A self-taught artist, Heywood’s works are indebted to the origins of geometric abstraction in such artists as Kasimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian and John McLaughlin, though he has crafted a thoroughly personal interpretation.
In his multi-panel paintings, Heywood experiments with freeing art from the burden of the object, translating planes into elegantly composed geometric sections, each a variation on a theme. Reductive in nature, the subtleties of form and formal qualities of composition are paramount. Heywood utilizes colorblocking of highly saturated panels in red, black, yellow, green and blue chromas, pristinely executed through layered, diagonal strokes. Heywood juxtaposes these fields of flat color, squeezing forms into tensions that often break free of the confines of
SPEED OF LIGHT
their rectangular frames, activating the space and subverting the distinction between painting and sculpture.
Heywood’s compositions are elegant explorations of the relationships between shape, line, color and space. Extending beyond the rectangular confines of the canvas, the paneled reliefs disrupt the plane and the relationship of figure to ground, introducing a sculptural dimension. As art critic Jody Zellen noted, the inclusion of sculptural space allows for an exploration of “the relationships between presence and absence with respect to a given architectural space.”
Scot Heywood has shown extensively in Southern California since the late 1970s at such significant galleries as Patricia Faure Gallery, Frank Lloyd Gallery, ACE Contemporary Exhibitions and Peter Blake Gallery. His work has been featured in dozens of solo shows, and has been included in significant group exhibitions at The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco Art Institute and Otis College of Art & Design. zzzzHeywood’s work has been featured in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, Art Slant, LA Weekly and Artweek. His paintings are represented in numerous public and private collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Laguna Art Museum, Palm Springs Art Museum, and Museo Jumex in Mexico City. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Speed of Light #2 - Black, Gray, Green, White, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 78” x 66”
Speed of Light #1 - Black, Umber, Silver, White, 2024, Acrylic on canvas 72” x 120” (diptych)
“Austere and stalwart, these are paintings that insist on clarity, consciousness and the utmost precision in all choice and action.”
-Christopher Knight
Stack - Black, White, Canvas, 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 70” x 74”
DaVinci - Black, Red, Canvas, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 84” x 78”
Compression - Gray, Red, Canvas, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 60” x 62”
Compression - Black, Gray, Canvas, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 60” x 62”
- Blue, White,
Shift
2015, Arcylic on canvas, 38” x 38”
Diamond - Gray, White, Black, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 60” x 60”
Although Heywood’s paintings are hard-edged and geometric, they’re not reductive. On the contrary, they embrace the unpredictability of ongoing experience, challenging our visual acuity by focusing our eyes on hair-splitting distinctions.
-David Pagel
Counterpoint - Gray, White, Black, Canvas, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 36.5” x 42”
Coutnerpoint - Gray, White, Black, Canvas, 2021,
Acrylic on canvas, 36.5” x 42”
Counterpoint - Black, Blue, White, Linen, 2021, Acrylic on canvas & linen, 36.5” x 42”
Sunyata - Gray, Yellow, White, Canvas, 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 54” x 88.5”
Arupa - Black, Blue, Canvas, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 72” x 89”
Transition - Linen, Black, Grey, White, 2019
Acrylic and matte medium on canvas, 60” x 60”
Arupa -Green, Canvas, White, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 71” x 71”
Arupa -Blue, White,Canvas, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 38” x 38”
Arupa - Black, Blue, Canvas, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 38” x 38”
“While holding to his structure of one color to one panel, Heywood shares with Mondrian the sense of color as the irreducible unit on which painting depends. At its most basic, color is lightreflective. By conceiving of color as light, Heywood’s objective is to “illuminate the plane” with a triad of colors that, together, creates an even, balanced light.”
-Frances Colpitt
Arupa - Gray, Red, Canvas, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 38” x 38”
Suzuki’s Dichotomy - Black, Green, Yellow, Linen, Grey, 2020, Acrylic on Linen, 22” x 48”
Suzuki’s Dichotomy - Green, Grey, Linen, Yellow, Black, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 22” x 48”
Suzuki’s Dichotomy - Linen, Black, Green, Yellow, Grey, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 22” x 48”
Haikube - Red, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 30” x 60”
Haikube - Blue, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 30” x 60”
Matisse’s Window, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 42” x 81”
3 -
Haikube (interior) - Linen, Black, White, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 22” x 44”
Untitled
Sienna, Black, White, Linen, Umber, 2021, Acrylic on linen, 27” x 54”
Matisse’s Window - White, Linen, Black, Blue, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 42” x 81”
Haikube (interior) - Gray, White, Linen, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 22” x 44”
Haikube (interior) - White, Black, Linen, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 22” x 44”
Haikube - Black, White, Linen, 2 019, Acrylic on linen, 10” x 18”
Haikube - White, Linen, 2019, Acrylic on linen, 10” x 18”
Crossroads - Black, Gray, Blue, White, 2022, Acrylic on linen, 32” x 36”
Crossroads - Red, Yellow, Gray, Black, 2022, Acrylic on linen, 32” x 36”
Crossroads - Black, Green, Gray, White, 2022, Acrylic on linen, 39” x 48”
SCOT HEYWOOD
Born in Los Angeles in 1951, Scot Heywood has been investigating geometric abstraction for over forty years. “I painted flat from the get-go,” Heywood says, who has explored abstraction throughout the course of his artistic career. A self-taught artist, Heywood’s works are indebted to the origins of geometric abstraction. In the late 1970s, Heywood fell in love with the paintings of Piet Mondrian and John McLaughlin; since then, he has been translating the austere philosophy of geometric abstraction into his own monochromatic works.
Ranging in scale from intimate to encompassing, his paintings consist of multiple, colored canvases, connected in staggered, patchwork patterns. In a seemingly endless array of variations, he inserts thin strips between, or attaches them to the sides of, square and rectangular canvases, intentionally misaligning them to create delightfully disruptive, staccato visual rhythms. Heywood is interested in the relationship between wall, work, and viewer, and in the rich dialogue between color and form.
Heywood has shown extensively in Southern California since the late 1970’s at significant galleries such as Patricia Faure Gallery, Frank Lloyd Gallery, ACE Contemporary Exhibitions and Subliminal Projects Gallery. His work has been featured in dozens of solo shows, including exhibitions at The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco Art Institute and Otis College of Art & Design. Heywood’s work has been featured in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, Art Slant, LA Weekly and Artweek. His paintings are also represented in numerous public and private collections, including the Frederick Weisman Foundation. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY
Scot Heywood in his Los Angeles Studio
SCOT HEYWOOD SELECTED CV
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 Speed of Light, William Turner Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2013 A Survey of Large Paintings 2006-2013, Santa Monica College Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery, Santa Monica, California
A Survey of Small Paintings, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2012 Polarities, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2009 New Paintings, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
2008 Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
2005 Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, California
2003 Chac Mool Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2000 Chac Mool Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1998 Chac Mool Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1995 Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California
1994 Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California
1992 Ace Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California
1990 Kiyo Higashi Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1989 Newspace, Los Angeles, California
1987 Newspace, Los Angeles, California
1986 Newspace, Los Angeles, California
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014 Joe Goode, Scot Heywood, John M. Miller, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
2013 Polyform: Larry Bell, Scot Heywood, Gustavo Pérez, and Mark Pharis, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2012 California Abstract Painting 1952-2011 (Curated by James Hayward), Woodbury University Nan Rae Gallery, Burbank, California
2011 Less is More, Subliminal Projects Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Marks and Movement: Five Painters, Edith Baumann, James Hayward, Scot Heywood, John M. Miller & Ed Moses, Santa Monica College Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery, Santa Monica, California, (catalogue)
Three Abstract Painters: John McLaughlin, James Hayward, Scot Heywood, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2009 Lita Albuquerque, Scot Heywood and Andy Moses, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
Selected Group Exhibitions
2008 Planes and Surfaces, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Fifteen Years/Fifteen Artists, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
Color Blind: Black, White and Grey in Contemporary Art, Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
2007 Black and White, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Monochrome Painting: Some Versions from Ad Reinhardt to Present, Cardwell Jimmerson
Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
West Coast Abstraction, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
2006 A Little So Cal Abstraction, Mandarin Gallery, Los Angeles, California (catalogue)
That’s Hot, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Spring Fever, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000 Luminous, Ikon, Ltd./Kay Richards Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
Simply Complex: Monochromatic Paintings from LA, Dorsky Gallery, New York
2000, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, California
1999 Under 500/Intimate Abstract Painting, Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, California
1998 Starting with McLaughlin, Patricia Faure Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1997 Abstraction in Los Angeles, New Image Art, Los Angeles, California
1996 Red Painting, Newspace, Los Angeles, California
1994 Plane/Structures, Otis Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California
In Plane Sight: Abstract Painting in LA Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, Texas
1992 New L.A. Abstraction, Art Gallery, College of the Mainlands, Texas City, Texas Group Show, Burnett Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1991 Group Show, Kiyo Higashi Gallery Los Angeles, California
1989 Art and Soul, Pence Gallery Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles Current Abstract Painting, Marc Richards Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1988 Artist’s Liaison, Major Chicago Exhibition, Chicago, Illinois
Primary Abstraction: Los Angeles, Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, California
1987 New Now, Los Angeles, California
1985 Black and White Drawings from the David Nellis Collection, CSU, Los Angeles, California
Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, Newspace, Los Angeles, California
Divisions: Seven Los Angeles Painters, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
1984 New Clear Painting, Newspace, Los Angeles, California
1983
New Abstract Painters from Los Angeles, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
1982 In the Tradition, Group Studio Show, Los Angeles, California
1980 Abstract Painting, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
1979 Group Exhibition, Vanguard Gallery, Los Angeles, California
SCOT HEYWOOD
SPEED OF LIGHT
WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY