INSTALLATION VIEW:

PRESS RELEASE:

Pipeline is delighted to present Leon Scott-Engel's solo exhibition Handle With Care, opening Wednesday 21 June, 6-8pm.

Scott-Engel invites a vulnerability and tenderness into his work whilst undermining conventional ideas surrounding masculinity and arbitrary gender roles. Playing off stereotypes, Scott-Engel borrows the structures of boxing equipment such as sparring pads or kick shields to create canvases that serve a safeguard function. Disregarding the rigidity of traditional painting frames, his canvases bend and shield. In doing so, they soften the physical architecture of the gallery itself. Some behave like bodies, slumped on the floor or wrapped around a wall like a protective arm or a lap to lie on. Occasionally resembling mattresses, Scott-Engel also considers place and the privacy of one’s bed as a site for vulnerability.

Presented in the main gallery are paintings morphed into sculpture, the artist’s multi-disciplinary practice sharing a common figuration. His paintings which depict scenes of romance and solitude within softened frames, are contrasted with paintings on wood that are hard and rigid. In the end room hangs a  sculpture resembling a boxing bag. Naked and exposed, it is built up with softly painted bruises and inhabits a space on its own. ‘Swole’ (2023) closely resembles a figure beckoning to be held, intensifying the human quality in Scott-Engel’s work. Downstairs is an installation titled ‘Beacons’, made of wax casts of the artist’s own head that blinker ‘SOS’ in morse code.

Scott-Engel’s work shifts between content and form, between painting and sculpture. Across his work there is a reciprocal relationship between object and viewer. As equally as the viewer is inclined to hold and protect the objects before it, the work itself has its own protective tendency as it interacts with the space and enfolds the viewer. Reflected in his practice is the process of maturing and an ability to be increasingly generous and forgiving with oneself. For his debut solo exhibition, Scott-Engel endeavours to bring further softness into his work. A central consideration for the artist has been to embrace a tenderness that transcends stereotypes and dissolves any line of defense, making room for a mutual respect between viewer and object.

Leon Scott-Engel (b.1999) lives and works in London. He completed his BA at Glasgow School of Art in 2022 and was awarded the Richard Ford Award and Research Residency at the Museo Del Prado, Madrid. Scott-Engel’s work has been included in a number of group shows including The Split Gallery, London (2023); Liliya Art Gallery, London (2023); Warbling, London (2022); Black White Gallery, London (2022); Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (2022) and D Contemporary, London (2022).

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EXHIBITED WORKS:

FLOORPLAN:

Main Gallery:

1. In-tangle, 2023
Oil on Plywood
35cm x 20cm

2. Afterglow, 2023
Oil on Plywood
25cm x 35cm

3. Rose Tinted, 2023
Oil on Tailored Linen,
Upholstered Over Foam and Wood
Each 20cm x 28cm x 4.5cm

4. Sling, 2023
Oil on Plywood
25cm x 35cm

5. Trace, 2023
Oil on Linen
135cm x 112cm x 70cm


6. Swole, 2023
Oil on Tailored Linen, Leather,
Steel Chains, Metal Fixings
40cm x 150cm x 40cm

7. Nestling, 2023
Oil on Plywood
25cm x 35cm

8. Vanitas, 2023
Oil on Linen
95cm x 80cm x 40cm

9. Skin on Skin, 2023
Oil on Tailored Linen,Foam, Leather
35cm x 67cm x 17cm

Lower Ground Floor:

10. Beacons, 2022-
Paraffin Wax, Microcrystalline Wax, Wax Pigments,
Mild Steel, LED Lights, Arduino’s
Sizes Variable

PRESS RELEASE:

Uncover (2023)
Oil on linen
128 x 75 x 70 cm

Ahead of his debut solo exhibition at Pipeline, Leon Scott-Engel presents Uncover, a painting which embodies central ideas in his work. For the first time ‘the Pipeline’, which regularly features one work by an artist in advance of their exhibition, is taking place in an offsite location at 46 Penton St, N1 9QA.

Uncover will be exhibited and viewable from the street from 1 June up until the opening of Scott-Engel's solo exhibition at Pipeline on 21 June.  It can also be visted by appointment, please contact the gallery to arrange.

Scott-Engel’s practice reflects on common associations with masculinity that involve a physical and emotional hardening. In an attempt to combat these displays of power, he invites a softness and generosity to his work in both form and subject. Tender paintings reference romance and self-image that reflect the soft structures they are painted on. By enabling his paintings to be physically activated when in the presence of a viewer, Scott-Engel gives his work a sensitivity to their surroundings and creates a relationship between painting and sculpture, person and object.

Disregarding the rigidity of traditional painting frames, Scott-Engel’s process begins with the structure of the painting itself. His curved canvases take on a figuration, bending inward and outward and enveloping the viewer. They coil and shield, like a protective arm or a lap to lie on. Scott-Engel enters his paintings into a three dimensional space by laying them like mattresses on the ground or using them to wrap and bandage corners. In doing so, the paintings soften the very edges of the gallery itself.

Uncover is a new work by Scott-Engel in which he further explores the suggestion of a mattress, recalling artists such as Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas who have previously considered the bed as a place that cradles our most fragile moments. A mattress is an object stained with intimate history, a place where we start our day and return to. It is where we are both alone and together, where we yield a part of our personal space to another and shed any hard exterior. For Scott-Engel, Uncover is the springboard for the works in his upcoming exhibition, a place where the hyper-masculine subsides and gives way to the overall expression in his work.

Leon Scott-Engel (b.1999, London, UK) lives and works in London. He completed his BA at Glasgow School of Art in 2022 and was awarded the Richard Ford Award and Research Residency at the Museo Del Prado, Madrid. Scott-Engel’s work has been included in a number of group shows including The Split Gallery, London (2023); Liliya Art Gallery, London (2023); Warbling, London (2022); Black White Gallery, London (2022); Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (2022) and D Contemporary, London (2022).

Scott-Engel’s upcoming exhibition at Pipeline will open 21 June, 2023 and will mark the artist's first solo exhibition.