Carlton Scott
Sturgill

Carlton Scott Sturgill was born in 1971 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received a BFA from the University of Cincinnati and a MA from Chelsea Collage of Art in Design in London. Although he now lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, his work continues to be shaped by his Midwestern roots. Inspired by the bedroom communities of Mid-America, his work examines the conflict between our need to push individual sexual boundaries and our desire to appear as ambassadors of a white-picket-fence America. Using objects sourced from the suburban landscape, such as paint chip samples from Home Depot and clothing from the all-American company Ralph Lauren, along with imagery appropriated from the Casual Encounters section of Craigslist, he explores the dichotomy between public persona and private behavior. His paintings, sculptures and mosaics use the vernacular of the American heartland to scratch the surface of suburban pretense, exploring the compulsion to veil ourselves behind the facade of a commodified version of the American Dream. Sturgill’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in North America and Europe, including the Cornell Museum of Art in Delray Beach, Florida, Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin, Ireland, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art in New York City, and he is represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans.