about
Iris Scott has made a career around a fundamental inquiry: must a paintbrush be the only tool?
The artist committed herself to exclusively finger painting between the years 2009 and 2019. Finger painting took her to New York City, where she lived and worked in a renovated factory loft in the heart of Brooklyn. The city’s dynamic energy delivered exactly the magic Iris needed to elevate finger painting to new heights. Iris earned representation with Filo Sofi Arts, and her 2019 solo show, “Ritual in Pairing,” held in Chelsea, was praised by Jerry Saltz and received coverage from esteemed outlets including New York Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, and Artnet.
Yet all chapters must fade to make space for new adventures. The enchantment of the city dimmed as Iris approached the age of 34, sparking a desire to seek out a remote, off-grid existence. In 2019, just before the pandemic made headlines, Iris and her husband embarked on a grand relocation to a secluded corner of Northern New Mexico. Over the course of a couple of years, they erected a sanctuary, a house, and a studio on a 500-acre parcel. In 2023, amidst this transformation, Iris welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world.
With change stirring in the air, Iris sensed a yearning for artistic metamorphosis. She craved the enchantment of discovering another medium beyond the paintbrush. The revelation of finger painting a decade prior had ignited her creativity and launched her career, and she felt it was time for another significant artistic shift. But what form would it take?
As fate would have it, a happy accident graced her studio once again. In 2020, while using her shop air compressor to remove dust from a finger painting, Iris accidentally punctured a section of wet paint with high-pressure air, birthing a mesmerizing 2D bubble. The mark was like a cell— a new organic unit, full of dimension, like atoms of possibility. Enthralled by this ethereal effect, Iris embarked on an odyssey of experimentation, and a new era had dawned—the era of “air-painting.”
Just as finger painting had chosen her a decade earlier, this untapped and totally original painting technique seized Iris’ imagination anew. Since 2020, she has manipulated paint with high-pressure air, yielding exhilarating results. Iris now seamlessly integrates finger painting, air-painting, palette knives, and paintbrushes into her oeuvre as the muse dictates. While the first decade of her career was defined by the constraints of making art with her fingertips, the ensuing decade promises boundless exploration and range, with her repertoire of techniques and subject matter expanding in kaleidoscopic splendor.