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<\/a><\/p>\nArt lets us escape, while helping us return to ourselves.<\/b><\/p>\n
Biarritz, France \u2014<\/b>\u00a0Fantastic Refuge<\/i>, a two-person exhibition by Savannah artists Richard T. Scott and Jordan Nobuko Baker, opens June 6 at Galerie L\u2019Oeil du Prince. Partners in life and art, this exhibition melds two distinct but philosophically aligned practices. The exhibition presents new work that engages contemporary questions of identity, value, and cultural meaning through the living language of classical painting \u2013 asking timeless questions: Who are we? How did we get here? And where are we going?<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s work draws on historical and mythological imagery to examine our American identity crisis and its internal contradictions. Grounded in Enlightenment thought, his paintings examine ideals such as truth, reason, equality, and individual freedom, testing their durability in a fragmented, post-truth culture. Executed with dramatic chiaroscuro, Rococo frivolity, and complex figuration, Scott\u2019s paintings reframe canonical narratives to interrogate power, race, and cultural myth. Vive la R\u00e9sistance<\/i>, depicts Napoleon’s historically documented rout by thousands of rabbits during a celebratory hunt \u2014 rendered as allegory for the capacity of community to expel enthroned power. Dawn\u2019s Early Light<\/i> presents a chimpanzee wrapped in the American flag, howling before a dusky landscape, black smoke billowing on the horizon. Apollo: The Age of Reason<\/i>\u00a0depicts Apollo as a beautiful black man, challenging the iconography of cultural origins. His paintings are held in museum and private collections in North America, Europe, and Asia, situating this body of work within an ongoing institutional dialogue.<\/p>\n
Baker\u2019s paintings update the Dutch Baroque tradition, using still life to explore mortality, transience, and cycles of renewal. Her compositions\u2014flowers, fruit, and a deer skull (symbolizing her late father) rendered with precision and luminosity\u2014draw from both 17th-century vanitas<\/i> and her Japanese and Chinese heritage. Informed in part by her Shinto grandmother\u2019s experience of internment during WWII, her work reflects on impermanence and the ways the value of a human life is assigned and denied. Messenger of the Gods<\/i> combines gold leaf with the traditions of Japanese screen painting and Tang Dynasty horses, weighing competing expressions of her cultural heritage. Gold leaf was often employed in Buddhist art, shrines, and traditional crafts as a symbol of purity and divine mercy, edifying aesthetic value above mere monetary worth.<\/p>\n
Developed over seven years, this body of work represents a focused and evolving contribution to contemporary still life painting. Jordan Baker holds a BFA in Art History from Syracuse University and an MFA in mixed media from SUNY Albany. Her work is held in museum and private collections in North America and Asia.<\/p>\n
Together, Scott and Baker position classical painting as an evolving language rather than a historical tradition\u2014one capable of translating beyond western culture, carrying complex meaning, and illuminating truth in this digital dark age. Classical aesthetics remain relevant not as nostalgia, but as our human inheritance – a durable framework for thinking and surviving the volatility of contemporary life.<\/p>\n
While\u00a0Fantastic Refuge<\/i>\u00a0engages themes of instability and uncertainty, it is ultimately grounded in an optimistic project: asserting that works of art, made by the human hand and heart, can envision and inspire a better future.<\/p>\n
Fantastic Refuge<\/i>\u00a0runs June 6 through July 1, 2026. Opening reception: Saturday, June 6, 6:00 PM at Galerie L\u2019Oeil du Prince, 3 Avenue du Mar\u00e9chal Foch, 64200 Biarritz, France.<\/p>\n
Press inquiries, image requests, and interview scheduling:
\nrichardtscottart@gmail.com\u00a0| (347) 605-5048<\/p>\n
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