Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyler Scully.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Tyler. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Original from the San Francisco Bay Area, I’ve been making art from a young age, but I was more focused on music. My painting sensibility can be broken down into exposure to major artists that have inspired me.
In high school, I ran across a book on René Magritte. Amazed by Magritte’s poetic surrealism my art teacher Mr. Torquemada allowed me to experiment with different techniques and applications of paint. He expanded my art history knowledge and pushed me to not just settle trying to duplicate reality (though he specialized in photo realism).
While I went to college at San Francisco State University for Art with a dual focus on Painting and Sculpture, I mainly stuck to producing music rather than painting. Making and promoting music in the Noise and Dubstep scenes around the Bay Area for several years. My aesthetic had always been toward a darker tone exemplified by my painting professor asking me during a critique if I “was into evil”.
The next major artist was a chance encounter while waiting for a friend in San Francisco, I decided to go to the SF MoMA to kill some time and happened upon an exhibit of William Kentridge. I was shocked by how dark and emotional his work was and that it was in a prestigious museum. This realization allowed me the freedom to explore what I wanted without fear of being too ‘dark’ to be art.
I moved to Los Angeles after college in 2014 and have lived in a few neighborhoods, but eventually settled into Burbank. My last major revelation was happening upon an exhibit at the Autry Museum of Rick Bartow. I was completely captivated by his modern take on the self and interweaving his Native culture within his work. Being biracial, I never truly thought to explore my heritage, much less put it in my artwork. So over the past year, I’ve begun including Hawaiian imagery, landscapes, and philosophy into my work.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I make paintings in a style I call minimal expressionism. Minimal in figures and environment, but expressionist in the subjects and applications of paint. Probably my most popular series is my renditions of Trump and the horror of businessmen like him. Currently I’m focusing on adding autobiographical elements to my work and creating more emotion within the figures.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles is an amazing place if there was no traffic. Every block can be a whole new environment with so many different people.
As far as the arts go, there is arguably no better place in America to be. There are so many people that there is an audience for every type of art.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tylerscully.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/specters_art
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/specters
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