Octavia Art Gallery is pleased to present two solo exhibitions of new work by local artists James Henderson and Ayo Scott. This will be Henderson’s third solo exhibition with the gallery and Scott’s first solo show since completing the Joan Mitchell Center NOLA Studio Program. 

Ayo Scott’s debut exhibition at the gallery presents his most recent mixed media works alongside his large-scale digital drawings. For Scott, the syncretic tensions present in New Orleans are at the foreground his aesthetic practice. His sensitivity to the traditions, ambitions and contradictions of his hometown allow him to create visual allegories as a means through which to explore ways of being, consumerism and technology’s interaction with the transcendent. Scott’s recent work focuses on leveraging technology to create a symbiosis between the analog and the digital. He achieves this through a reflexive technique that begins with digital collaging and juxtaposition of distinct elements drawn from European masters, African masks and popular iconography. Scott then transfers his collaged compositions onto panels and is able to paint in color and line. Continuing his process, the panel works are then photographed, color is removed, and they become a new impetus for the artist to digitally embellish each layer, generating a discourse between the technological and the traditional.

The son of nationally renowned artist John T. Scott, Ayo received his Bachelor of Arts from Xavier University. In 2008, Scott had a solo exhibition at the McKenna Museum of African American Art and his work has been included in exhibitions at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Louisiana Art and Science Museum.  In 2011, Ayo was honored as the recipient of the Love in the Garden award from the New Orleans Museum of Art.