Artist Scott Albrecht focusses on the present in a world in flux

Scott Albrecht’s new show Here and Now opens July 3rd, from 6—10pm, at Amsterdam’s Andenken / Battalion space, featuring a collection of works on paper, wood panel, and dimensional woodworks.

We caught up with the Brooklyn-based artist to find out more.

What’s Here and Now all about?
As I was making work for this show I started finding a lot of inspiration from these bigger shifts or moments of change in my personal life and also with friends and family. My wife and I have been discussing things like changing of jobs, potentially moving across country, starting a family and also seeing some of our friends go through changes of their own like marriages and divorces, changing careers, etc.

The work in the show is meant to highlight and speak to these situations in varying degrees – from coping with the unknown to recognising the opportunity of a situation. Since I’m making a lot of the work as a reaction to these situations, I like to keep an optimistic perspective despite the circumstances. The title for the show, Here and Now, frames the collection to mindful and focus on the present. Change is always going to happen, and I feel like the best way to cope or deal with it, is to embrace it as it comes.

What’s been really inspiring you recently?
I’ve been seeing a lot of friends close to me taking time to do more of what they love. One friend just dipped her toes into exhibiting art for the first time, which I think she was really stoked on and she’s getting ready for her next show. Another friend just released a young adult novel called Benjamin Buckingham and the Nightmare’s Nightmare – which is a super fun and crazy imaginative story (I feel like it will blow kids minds but I may be biased). And others just don’t stop. They’re constantly creating and making things. I get stoked seeing people work on things they’re passionate about, and it’s always been a fuel for me to do more of my own work and projects

You talk about the ideas of “change and shift” being at the heart of your new show. What does the future hold for you?
I don’t know – things change everyday and I try not to get too comfortable with one idea of where to go. I’m looking forward to traveling a little more this year, getting back in the studio to work on some new pieces and possibly starting up a new side biz for artist multiples and editions. But we’ll see.

Scott Albrecht’s Here and Now at Andenken / Battalion space, Amsterdam, opens Friday July 3rd from 6 – 10pm. Runs until July 24.

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