Scott Treleaven, Untitled (knife) 2005, C-print 29x19"

Scott Treleaven – untitled (reflection in antique scrying mirror / marble figure behind glass, Cimitero Monumentale, Milan), 2019 unique photo collage from 35mm negative prints, 14.75 x 10 cm

Scott Treleaven Cease to Exist, 2011 Pastel on paper 72 x 54.5 cm | 28.25 x 21.5 inches

Scott Treleaven Remote Viewer, 2013 Pastel, crayon, pencil, house paint, gouache, and collage on paper 49 x 37.5 inches | 125.5 x 95.25 cm

‘New Pagan Paintings’ - opens April 1  at Cooper Cole [West Gallery] 

Little Gods Again (2023) oil on canvas, 9 x 6”

Very grateful to the extraordinary Derek McCormack for the exhibition text below:  “Deathly - this is how flower paintings struck Treleaven for the longest time - the flowers under duress, their viewers under duress to value them. He was interested in dispersing this duress, so he started painting flowers himself, and this show features the nasturtiums, sunflowers, geraniums and morning glories that captured him. "I turned to flowers," he says, "to find out what made me resist painting them." There are nine paintings in 'New Pagan Paintings,' all finished in the last few years. The blooms are what you'll notice first, then the light: light's shining on them and light seems to be shining from them. They're alive - it’s animism, though that's not the point of the paintings; it's the starting point. If he grants that flowers have spirits, then what spirit will they grant him? If they have spirit, then surely part of their spirit is perverse. These paintings are pagan in that they're full of a particular spirit: petalled and petulant, hermaphroditic and horny - to me, they suggest what we might get if Joe Brainard paintings buggered Charles Burchfield paintings - paradise! These are cultured flowers with the souls of wildflowers or weeds. When he started painting them a few years ago, he realized that they'd been lurking for a long time. Even in his previous body of work - in his Jewel/Galaxy paintings, he'd drawn flowers on his canvases then painted over them, as if paint were soil, and as if every part of a flower were a seed. In 'New Pagan Paintings,' in these stellar paintings, flowers star: they swarm over the surface; indeed, they are the surface. I might also mention that there's also a painting of a berry, which shouldn't surprise any of Treleaven's admirers: everything in his work's fruity as fuck.” - Derek McCormack's most recent books are Castle Faggot (Semiotext(e)), a novel, and Judy Blame's Obituary (Pilot Press) a collection of essays on fashion and death. 

Language of the Birds: Occult and Art

80WSE Gallery, New York University January 12 – February 13, 2016

Curated by Pam Grossman

Opening reception: Wednesday, January 13, 6 – 8pm

With: Kenneth Anger * Anohni * Laura Battle * Jordan Belson * Alison Blickle * Carol Bove * Jesse Bransford * BREYER P-ORRIDGE * John Brill * Robert Buratti * Elijah Burgher * Cameron * Leonora Carrington * Francesco Clemente * Ira Cohen * Brian Cotnoir * Aleister Crowley * Enrico Donati * El Gato Chimney * Leonor Fini * JFC Fuller * Helen Rebekah Garber * Rik Garrett * Delia Gonzalez * Jonah Groeneboer * Juanita Guccione * Brion Gysin * Frank Haines * Barry William Hale * Valerie Hammond * Ken Henson * Bernard Hoffman * Nino Japaridze * Gerome Kamrowski * Leo Kenney * Paul Laffoley * Adela Leibowitz * Darcilio Lima * Angus MacLise * Ann McCoy * Rithika Merchant * William Mortensen * Rosaleen Norton * Micki Pellerano * Ryan M Pfeiffer & Rebecca Walz * Max Razdow * Ron Regé, Jr. * Rebecca Salmon * Kurt Seligmann * Harry Smith * Kiki Smith * Xul Solar * Austin Osman Spare * Charles Stein * Shannon Taggart * Gordon Terry * Scott Treleaven * Panos Tsagaris * Charmion von Wiegand * Robert Wang * Peter Lamborn Wilson * Lionel Ziprin

image: Scott Treleaven, New Desirable States (2015) pastel, crayon, gouache, house paint on paper, 41.25 x 31.5 inches

Scott Treleaven, ‘So Ha’ (2019), acrylic, gouache and permanent crayon on canvas

Scott Treleaven, 'Goddy' (2014) pastel, gouache and collage on paper 124.5 x 94.5 cm

Scott Treleaven, ‘Not Palaces (Rassemblement)’, 2016 Gouache, acrylic and collage on paper 16 panels, 21.5" X 280"

Scott Treleaven, ‘A Blakean Sunflower in Harlem’ (2011) pastel and watercolour on paper, 40.5 x 30.5 cm

Scott Treleaven, Kaliflower (2013) pastel, gouache, collage on paper 49 x 37.25"