Scarlett Rouge
Currently living in Fontainebleau, Scarlett Rouge has perpetually resided between California and Europe. She completed her BFA in Photography in 2002 at The California Institute of the Arts. After deciding it was too “sunless in the darkroom” she transitioned to painting; later completing her studio studies in installation art.
Rouge’s interdisciplinary practice echoes her nomadic life, which has been influenced by mythos, geographical settings, and navigation between cultures. A disciple of ‘art as a spiritual movement’, she infuses her distinct playfulness across artistic expression. Utilising symbolic language, she reconstructs archetypes to fit our present-day ethos in an effort to create a therapeutic framework that touches the secular nature of our modern souls. As embodied in her sculpture Origine Oscura, 2012, an earth goddess is distorted by neglect and abuse. Rouge uses her character’s vagina dentata to comment on society’s overwhelming consumerism.
Pulled by the threads of mysticism and the power of symbols, Rouge's art practice is a fusion of her love of storytelling and her interest in metaphysics. Inspired by the teachings of Jung and Campbell, Rouge views the artist’s function as a form of a modern day medicine woman. Considering age-old inquiries such as “What happens between death and birth?” or “What is the impetus of meaning?”, she uses video artworks such as Magic Trauma Sprinkles, 2009, and Beyond the Walls of Eden, 2018, to propel the artist and social “outsider” to question the traditional ties that separate archaic and contemporary society. Whether using the Internet as a platform for her performance Sex, God, and Webcams, or in her self-styled ‘movable murals’ Oxy - Morans: We cannot Fight for Peace, 2013 and Shit Show: The Drumpf Years, 2018, Rouge uses art as an anthropological discovery and a method to reflect upon political discourse.
In all her work, Rouge remains driven by an intuitive need to reconnect Spirit to Matter, by the growth of our collective human psyche, and a need to explore not only what things are made of, but also to uncover the invisible energy and the emotive drives that further existence. In a sphere that has no roof nor bottom, because it exist without physical boundaries, Art can guide us to descend into and appreciate the darkness, and usher us back towards the awakening of light that shines at the end of the tunnel.
Rouge’s performance career began at the age of four as a member of the pop-punk band The Visiting Kids established by artist Nancye Ferguson, produced by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. Currently, she performs with LAVASCAR, alongside her mother Michele Lamy and artist Nico Vascellari.
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Amenta Rouge, a sculptural exhibition with performance activation at Studio Rö, Milano, Italy, 2024
Astral Portraits and Earthly Remains, a exhibitions of bas-reliefs and fabric works at The Lodge, Los Angeles, 2023
Beyond The Walls of Eden, a video and sculptural installation at Casa Del Pingone, Torino, Italy, 2016
Blithe Spirit, at Ghost Space, Torino, Italy, 2013
Origine Oscura in the Asylum of Infinite Becoming, a multi-media installation at Paratissima 8, Torino, Italy, 2012
In the Womb, a sculptural and painting exhibition at Antebellum Gallery, Hollywood, California, 2010
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
White Cube, Paris, France, 2022
The Lodge Gallery and Sized, in Los Angeles, CA, 2022
Paratissima Exhibit and Fair, Torino, Italy 2021
Kspaces, Torino, Italy, 2019
Joyce Galerie, Paris, France 2018
Youn Gallery, Montreal, Canada, 2016
Fresh Winds Biennale, Gardur, Iceland, 2016
Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2012
Giardini della Reggia di Venaria Reale, Torino, Italy, 2012
Rouge’s work is featured in several publications, including Interview Magazine, Flair Magazine, I-D Italia, Icon Design, The Wall Street Journal, StylelikeU, What’s Contemporary, and Dossier Journal.
