Anthony Scott’s images are steeped in Irish mythology - battle scarred and emasculated god-warriors (animal or human) as their destinies dictate, yet clearly conceived in contemporary times.

The tendency of the human soul to emerge in animal form is an ongoing theme in the work of Anthony Scott. His animals have been drawn from Celtic mythology, where human characters are likely to appear as animals, and where beasts have human souls. Each work is given the name of a character from the ancient tales.

‘There is something totemic about these animals. It is as if the mythical figures they are named after are reborn - like Étaín - through kinship with the animal.’ (Dr Riann Coulter, Anthony Scott catalogue 2015, Beaux Arts London)

It is the potential for metamorphoses that is the persistent language of Scott’s work expressing his personalized struggle for an understanding of the human psyche. Preparing for the casting into bronze, Scott moulds his figures and animals in plaster, wax and clay instinctively working within his experience of living on the borders of Northern and Southern Ireland today.

For this exhibition, Scott has created his first large scale figurative work, a striking male nude with a solid powerful presence, who tenderly cradles a young dog. According to the myth, Connla asks the Druid Conaire to hide him, in order to protect his son from the goddess Danu.

‘Connla means warrior hound, and in Scott’s version, Conaire turns the boy into a dog. Like the horses that Scott so successfully imbues with the impression of vitality, this figure seems more nature than art - a living figure bewitched into bronze.’ (Dr Riann Coulter, Anthony Scott catalogue 2015, Beaux Arts London)

After obtaining a first class honours degree at the University of Ulster, the young sculptor was then deservedly elected an associate of the Royal Ulster Academy in 2011. This same year, Scott hit the headlines when the piece he had designed for the Irish National Stud in County Kildare was unveiled by Queen Elisabeth II during her historic trip to Ireland. The design was a globe, with small figures of horses inside it.

His bronze sculptures are displayed in many public and corporate collections, including The Arts Council of Northern Ireland; The Barbican Centre, London; The American Ambassador’s residence, Phoenix Park, Dublin. Monumental life size works are on show at the AIB Bank centre; Kelly’s Hotel Rosslare; as well as in many well-known private collections including that of Dame Judy Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Bryan Keenan, Barry McGuigan and Lord Salisbury to name but a few.

Beaux Arts has represented this talented artist with successful solo shows since 2005 in their Bath gallery. This will be his first solo show in the London gallery.

Catalogue Available on Request.