THE ANIMATOR
Scott Tucker
Words by Diana McClure
Photography by Wyatt Gallery
Scott Tucker brings empty space to life.Thirty-six-year-old Scott Tucker lives by what Taoists would call “instinctive spontaneity,” continuously creating change around him by changing himself. The diversity of his creative practice is astounding. Interactive corporate event design, sculpture, painting and furniture design are all manifested simultaneously within Tucker’s Brooklyn-based business and studio space. In Square Circle Design Concepts is a one-stop shop for fulfilling clients’ visual marketing needs.
With his 2007 line of wood, rectangular-shaped furniture (named Raunjiba) previewing in the spring, an exhibition of female figurative sculpture debuting at Brooklyn’s My Moon restaurant in February and continued work as a spokesperson for the Lincoln Navigator Entrepreneur campaign, Mr. Tucker is one busy artist.
Tucker’s organic process of creation began in an experimental elementary school, in his native Flatbush, Brooklyn. “Instead of having rooms, it was an open complex. There were no chairs and no desks. You sat on the floor in a circle.” Tucker’s favorite activity in this creativity-enriching school was building dioramas (3D scenes within shoeboxes), which led to an early interest in architecture.
Post-high school, Tucker’s architecture inclination led him to an engineering trade school, but he decided to pursue interior design at FIT instead. A year in the sculpture program at The Corcoran School of Art in DC taught him trade skills, including welding and woodworking, and a fledgling interest in painting was honed later, during a BFA from Long Island University with a year abroad at the Winchester School of Art in England.
Figurative images and colorful interiors both take prominence on Tucker’s canvases. “I realized that I liked the idea of making my interiors into paintings. Now, it’s developed to the point where the figures are more in focus.” In most cases, he finds a point of inspiration in magazines, culture or life. A dance scene from the movie Frida inspired one of his diptychs. The two matching paintings portray a rich, vibrant image of dancers, guests and musicians at a small party.
Tucker’s female figurative sculptures—made of copper, steel, paper, acrylic and stone—are called Segmatites. Their futuristic style, lifelike movement and interior lighting are unique and otherworldly. In fact, his February exhibition will feature “a series of flying Segmatites with projection on a sheer scrim that has different sky views,” Tucker explains. “Wherever you are sitting in the restaurant the sky will be over your head.”
And that’s just one example of Tucker’s ability to fill a space with his imagination, which is why clients such as Nike, Evian and Sundance have all hired him to envision and then create physical spaces that promote their products. Tucker has become known for his ability to breathe structured life into empty spaces, just as he breathes vibrant life into his art.
