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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)

Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.

Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.

Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.

Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.

Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.

Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.

If you’re thinking about decorating your space with abstract sculpture, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

You don’t have to look for a piece that demands attention. Find a work of abstract sculpture that speaks to you. As is the case with any abstract art, whether it’s sculpture, an abstract painting or a grouping of prints, you can select a work for your living room or dining room, for example, that will either casually fade into the background or serve as a focal point. When you’re thinking about how to arrange your furniture and decor, consider color, texture and what kind of energy you’d like a specific room or corner to evoke. Abstract sculpture can go a long way in elevating a home, and its history is interesting if you’re shopping for a new piece today.

As a pioneer in naturalistic forms and figures that vividly express emotion, Auguste Rodin is often called the father of modern sculpture. His work in the 19th and early 20th century broke with artistic conventions and inspired modernism, leading to a new period of avant-garde abstraction.

Among the first artists to push abstract sculpture into the mainstream were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They helped define the movement of Cubism, which focused on deconstructing the world abstractly.

Later in the 20th century, the artistic movements of Italian Futurism, Dadaism, Neo-Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and minimalism all contributed to the advancement of new and more abstract sculpture designs. Italian Futurism, for example, celebrated movement, dynamics and technology in abstract sculpture. These movements passed down ideas that continue to inform abstract sculpture today.

Browse a range of modern abstract sculptures, postmodern abstract sculptures and other kinds of sculpture on 1stDibs.