| Musgrove’s style of figural surrealism carries themes of environmental issues and endangered wildlife concerns with unique humor, depicting anomalous extinct (and fictitious) animal species. The artist’s imaginative work is painted and sculpted with inventive attention to the anatomical details of his subjects. Through a combination of biological attributes both real and imagined, Musgrove’s work illustrates his creative take on evolution, presenting an alternative theory of un-natural selection that would conceivably cause Charles Darwin to turn over in his grave. |  |
Scott Musgrove
Musgrove’s style of figural surrealism carries themes of environmental issues and endangered wildlife concerns with unique humor, depicting anomalous extinct (and fictitious) animal species. The artist’s imaginative work is painted and sculpted with inventive attention to the anatomical details of his subjects. Through a combination of biological attributes both real and imagined, Musgrove’s work illustrates his creative take on evolution, presenting an alternative theory of un-natural selection that would conceivably cause Charles Darwin to turn over in his grave.
While he often titled previous work using the formal “binominal nomenclature” system of latin-based scientific species classification, the artist chose to title some of the works in this show with famous last words of historical figures, instead. For example, How Is The Empire?—the title of one painting and of the show itself—happens to be the final words (inaccurately) attributed to King George V of England. Musgrove felt it fitting to use final words of illustrious characters as titles since much of his work is about extinction, believing that giving a voice to the deceased creatures themselves might dignify their passing, rather than simply naming the beasts as they silently await their inevitable demise.
