EXHIBITIONS
Installed along Taiwan’s southern coastline at Haikou Port, Scott VanderVoort’s latest work is a horizontally expansive steel sculpture that frames the horizon through a series of precisely aligned openings. Positioned between sea and sky, the piece invites visitors to pause, look outward, and experience the landscape through structure rather than spectacle.
2025, CLOSING SHOW TVD GALLERY
The finish to a six month sculpture garden residency, material tested, the natural elements assisting in the results. making for a wide variety of results both unpredictable vs. controlled.
Wood, stone, fire and water were used to test, watch and stack and position sculptures into position.
When Scott VanderVoort took over the sculpture garden for the 2025 season at Thomas VanDyke Gallery, he came to the space with a curiosity, to explore structure, weight, light, weather, and all the unknown variables, with an open mind. He came to ask questions and learn, to try new processes, to think while doing, to problem solve and contemplate. VanderVoort engages with his work. He knows the texture and mass of each piece, the cracks where they’ve been joined, the black, then red, then white hot wood under the flaming torch, then the hiss and smoke under the water from the hose. There’s a sense of calm thrill and quiet wonder when watching VanderVoort work, a fulfillment in his order and experimentation. His work is dynamic but soothing; big ideas with measured approach that results in an evolution of the curious mind and the physical world.
Rulers take us from the unknown to the known. By calculating and measuring, they inform our realities and help us to connect and make sense of the world around us. Unlike a traditional ruler with numbers and tick marks, my rulers guide visual perception and journeys that contrast a circle and a square and explore all the possibilities within these two shapes. Within this system, order and balance wrestle with visual rhymes and perceptive illusions.
The rulers evolved out of an examination into my stone sculpting practice. The constant discovery is an exciting part of the process, controlling light and shadow to curate new spatial compositions and expressive characters and imaginable worlds to slip into. Like driving past a cornfield and watching the depth shift at a rapid pace and falling into a hypnotic spell. Yet, I desired to distill this into a set of very tight parameters for evolving my work.
Liminal spaces are places of transition from one state to another - an inevitable part of my ongoing inquiry into beauty and perception, and embedded in both my paintings and sculptures. Often a change in materiality can bring new awareness and control to my outcomes. My collaboration with Michael Francken of Modern Shapes Gallery encouraged this through the production of a limited edition collection of mahogany and sycamore sculptures, providing an opportunity to apply my language to wood and stage my first solo show outside the U.S.
