Scott Troxel

"Makaha" (Wood) Desktop Sculpture mid century modern, modernism, monochrome

2023

Scott Troxel is an American abstract artist born in 1971 who lives and works in Marmora, New Jersey. From an early age, he became obsessed with modern art, color, and design. He is a painter, sculptor, and wall sculptor. Recently, the majority of his work has been in the form of wood mixed media wall sculpture because of his three-dimensional medium process. Troxel is always exploring materials and processes. Sometimes he uses repurposed and found materials and other times he purchases materials new.

Troxel predominantly works with wood as his base medium, due to its strength, dimension, and organic nature. The inherent texture of wood combined with paint and other man-made materials allows him to explore the concepts of old and young, worn versus new, organic versus man-made, and the past versus the present and future.

Troxel looks to capture a sense of time in his work and often combines the feeling of different eras within a single piece. He sees this as a direct parallel with human life, as we too grow older and interact with other generations, both younger and older. He is also particularly interested in items that were considered technologically or aesthetically advanced, only to be passed on by the consistency and tenacity of time — for example, an airplane boneyard where cutting-edge fighter jets from the 1960s sit in forgotten decay. These structures are still beautiful to look at from a design standpoint, even though they are no longer modern in the sense that time and technology have passed them by.

Troxel is particularly inspired by mid-century modernism, where wood and organic shapes were combined with other materials to suggest a type of futurism, though now they are considered vintage. Time has passed on but these pieces remain in the context of when they were designed. Troxel wants his works to feel this way, somewhat nostalgic, aged, and organic with the feeling that it could also be from a future time.

Troxel’s artworks belong to a number of corporate and hospitality collections, including the Shard Building, London; Westin Hotels; Wyndham Hotels; Embassy Suites Hotels and more.

Find a collection of original Scott Troxel art on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by galerie bruno massa)