Scott T. Anderson is a self-taught multimedia artist from Louisville, Kentucky. A coach's son, he grew up in locker rooms and gymnasiums. After wrestling in college, his wayward years began; he competed in professional MMA shows from the Rockies to Hawaii to Tokyo. When his fighting career ended, his focus shifted back to his enduring interest in visual art. He moved to Los Angeles, where he first showed his art professionally. Itchy feet led him to live briefly in New Mexico, New York City, Toronto, and a rural southern Louisiana parish. Eventually, the trail he followed brought him back to his birthplace of Kentucky where he now lives and works.

Scott’s work deals with history, myth, memory, and the American West. His subjects include cowboys, horses, semi-trucks, muscle cars, and western movie icons. The recurring character of the “goon,” a menacing cowboy, acts as a representative of American Exceptionalism, but betrays its hubris, evoking a faded glory. His paintings are primarily representational, but occasionally veer into abstraction.

While working on his more figurative paintings, he is also semi-consciously developing what he calls “floor paintings.” These begin as raw canvases used to clean brushes, lining the floor of his studio. Eventually, something emerges from the abstraction and these become the basis of serious paintings.

“And Then The Wheels Fell Off” features all new work, including large scale acrylic paintings, sculpture, and a three panel video piece. This body of work is both a reaction to Scott’s own upbringing in a culture of masculinity, and a response to our current socio-political moment. The motifs of spinning wheels, gritted teeth, and clenched fists mirror a society constantly toiling, but producing little. Our show of force is simply a bravado. We’ve run out of road, and we’re just driving till the wheels fall off.