Our Alley
July 3 – August 2, 2014
Opening: First Thursday, July 3, 2014 from 6:00PM – 8:00PM

Scott Kolbo’s solo exhibition, Our Alley, is a hybrid installation of new media, drawing and printmaking centered on urban narratives. Kolbo presents figurative drawings, but melds the traditional art form with video projection and digital media techniques. The exhibit features three looping videos projected over large scale, wall-mounted ink and charcoal drawings. The show also presents a series of altered monitors, covered with layers of translucent drawings superimposed over looping video segments. The exhibit includes a number of static 2-D drawings and prints. Kolbo’s drawings freeze the figures in the space and time, while the video footage focuses the viewer’s attention on momentary fragments of the narrative.

The theme of the exhibit revolves around a typical alley in a rough part of town. As a part of the project, Scott Kolbo collaborated with neighborhood kids to create short vignettes about what they imagine happens in these transitional spaces. Alleys and abandoned lots are places where young people are allowed to play imaginatively and without supervision. The project produced images and video footage of kids singing, swearing, playing, fighting, breaking bottles, starting fires and generally having fun being free. But Kolbo’s drawn imagery also exposes a more sinister side of empty lots and alleys – it portrays grown men stealing bikes and exhibiting other antisocial behaviors. These disparate actions take place in the same space and, at times, simultaneously. Scott Kolbo explores the idea of how people are shaped by their environment, as well as how individual actions impact the environments we create for each other.
scottkolbo.com

About the Artist