Scott Hadfield

“These paintings are restless mirrors. They flourish in unconcerted woodlands and in gardens beyond fences. They allow some things in and hold something back. They are slow as a glance and quick as a whisper. They are mesmerized by musicians who hum sweet songs. They stand straight, stark still, then sway easily.  They favor interpretation and daydreams. They imagine time but do not know it.”
– Scott Hadfield

Since Scott Hadfield’s last exhibition at Krakow Witkin Gallery, in 2013, significant change has transformed Hadfield’s life, his artistic practice, and the world surrounding him. In 2022, a devastating fire destroyed his apartment and studio. For a period of two years, the artist returned to live at his childhood home in Rhode Island.

During that period of displacement, Hadfield devoted renewed energy to reading and drawing. He also made a daily practice of walking with his dog to the beach at the end of the street. Unable to paint, he explored places he hadn’t frequented in 50 years, taking photographs as features of the landscape struck him. While much of the short walk was familiar, unchanged from childhood, there was a small bamboo grove that startled Hadfield. It was out of place amid the sedge and swamp grass.  When he examined his photos of the bamboo and sedge, Hadfield knew he had found a motif that, once back in the studio, would give him both limits and the freedom to use rhythm, color, value, and densities to describe places and states of mind.

Krakow Witkin Gallery is currently exhibiting seven paintings that Hadfield has made in oil and acrylic on canvas since returning to his studio. In each work, the process of addition not only builds density but also brings clarity: the sequence of layers remains discernible, revealing which layer was painted over which. Through both this layering and the juxtaposition of individual strokes—each defined by its position and direction—every band of color is simultaneously interrelated with and independent of those around it.

While the motif in Hadfield’s paintings is visually different from earlier bodies of his work, his process remains strikingly consistent. The artist has, again, focused on the balance between formal rigor and aesthetic preference to create both a surface worthy of extended exploration and a new history to build upon in his work. This exhibition represents a moment of renewal for Hadfield, personally and artistically, and the paintings offer the viewer a space to share in alternating currents of memory, introspection, and hope.

“Within the formal frame I could paint landscapes that weren’t descriptive but instead evoked the unity of ‘now and then,’ of continuity and change and the seamless single fabric of interior and exterior experiences.”
– Scott Hadfield