In the age of the selfie, what does it mean to reclaim your image? Lyra artist Scout Zabinski uses self-portraiture to capture a fleeting moment, articulating the discursive exchange between artist and viewer. Zabinski has had solo exhibitions at Carl Kostyàl Gallery in London, and Seasons LA in Los Angeles, and has been featured in group shows at The Hole and Over The Influence Hong Kong. Her artwork “The Waiting” is included in Lyra exhibition “I’m Not Afraid of Ghosts,” currently on view through September 22, 2024 in Venice. For Volume II of our interview series “Conversations on the Canal,” we spoke with Zabinski about her relationships to Italy and Los Angeles, her impulse to work across media, and the experiences that unite us all.
Every piece of art is a self-portrait in some way, but when we paint our physical form it creates a dance with the viewer. We know (and they know) that we are offering a piece of ourselves, or providing information about some greater knowledge. I think it’s fun to walk that line.
Lyra: Explain your interest in self-portraiture. Do you feel our cultural relationship to the painted self-portrait has shifted in today’s digital age?
Scout Zabinski: Every piece of art is a self-portrait in some way, but when we paint our physical form it creates a dance with the viewer. We know (and they know) that we are offering a piece of ourselves, or providing information about some greater knowledge. I think it’s fun to walk that line.
I also think in this day and age people don’t really think about what their image means. By that I mean we don’t think about the fact that when we capture ourselves during a moment, we’re doing something impossible: grasping something fleeting that is always and will forever be lost. I think of my paintings as that; a constant attempt to capture and appreciate what I’ve sort of already lost my grip on to stay present and appreciate what I have a little bit more.
I Saw the Lamb (108 Days Resurrected)
Scout Zabinski
Oil on canvas, 84 x 72 inches
Lyra: Your artworks are rich with symbolism that cuts across the ancient and the contemporary. Are you influenced by an art historical tradition of attributing meaning to symbols (eg: the mirror as a symbol of truth, the skull as a symbol of death) and do you feel that you are continuing that lineage or subverting it?
Scout Zabinski:My first experience with the magic of art was in Italy; being Italian, the Italian Renaissance is in my visual lexicon. The first artists I looked up to were Botticelli and Bernini. From the time that I first started painting, it has felt natural to use symbolism. I want someone to live with a piece and have it be like a riddle; if that riddle unravels in a day or over the course of a lifetime, it doesn’t really matter to me.
Comatose
Scout Zabinski
60 x 72 inches, oil on canvas
Lyra: Do you feel your home city of Los Angeles has an influence on your work?
Scout Zabinski:If anything, Los Angeles has made me realize how important nature is to me. When I moved here from New York, I was amazed by how many types of different plants I would see walking around my neighborhood. Some of them just look like alien lifeforms to me. That changed my work a lot.
Comatose
Scout Zabinski
60 x 72 inches, oil on canvas
Lyra: As an artist who works across media, how do you determine the correct medium for the job, and how do your sculptures and paintings inform eachother?
Scout Zabinski:I’m usually drawn first to painting, that’s how most of my ideas begin, but in the future, I’d like to showcase the photographs and videos that go into the production of my paintings. Whether it’s a painting or a sculpture or a video, those are all just attempts at capturing a moment, at putting form to the unfigured artwork that is our existence. Everything I make usually discusses the same thing but there are different feelings behind each piece; marble doesn’t induce the same emotion as canvas, and emotions are like jackets, I’ve got two closets full to suit the temperature and my mood.
God Himself Could Not Sink This Ship (86 Days Off the Cross)
Installation view of Scout Zabinski
72 x 60 inches, oil on canvas
Lyra: Regarding "I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts," How do you feel about being exhibited alongside the other artists in the show?
Scout Zabinski:Being a part of this show is surreal for me because my work is installed next to artists who have inspired me since I was a teenager. I still remember seeing Sarah Lucas‘ exhibition “Au Naturel” at the New Museum in New York and being captivated by her. In fact, the first nude self-portrait I ever made was maybe subconsciously inspired by her. It was a painting of me in my kitchen frying an egg on the stove with a paper bag over my head. So being in a show with her, Tracey Emin, and Cecily Brown is an absolute honor. So much of who I am as an artist is rooted in my Italian heritage and memories of traveling to Italy, so the site holds personal significance as well.
Scout Zabinski portrait courtesy of Scout Zabinksy
Photographer: McCabe Slye
Lyra: We’ve heard you say that using your own image allows you to be “completely free.” Curious about what this freedom means to you, and how it is specific to self-representation.
Scout Zabinski: I think I said that pretty early in my career when I was more worried about what people would think about me and my art. Painting my body used to be my way to tell my own story. Now I think it’s the opposite of that.
I think it’s still free in that it’s quite easy for me to come up with a long list of paintings I want to make; the list on my phone now is about 200 paintings long, but I think the self-portrait has freed me from my own body and image. It’s like this mask that I can wear. I’m not so much trying to use my face and body to tell the difference between my experience and someone else’s, I’m actually trying to repeat it so much that someone can just see themselves in me because our experiences really aren’t that different. We love, we lose, we win, we fuck, we grieve, we laugh, we sleep, we pray, we create, we fall, we rise.
Interviewer: Maddie Phinney
Congratulations to Scout Zabinski who was recently named by Art Cube as one of this year’s Top 100 Early Career Artists. Up next for Volume III of “Conversations on the Canal” is our interview with Lyra artist Hannah Bays.
Little White Lie
Scout Zabinski
72 x 108 inches, Oil on canvas