This semester, Georgia Southern University will host two MFA exhibits, which will showcase artwork created by graduate students from the Department of Art. In Artists’ Corner, we would like to spotlight these students by allowing them to explain their passion for their craft and the meaning behind their artwork.

This week’s Artist Corner will showcase the work of Scott Foxx, a self-titled “Southern gentleman artist” who will debut his two-dimensional, tentatively titled abstract painting series “Infrastructure” in GSU’s first exhibit which will last from March 3-13.

Scott Foxx received a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 2000 and plans to earn an MFA from GSU with a concentration in two-dimensional painting. Foxx, a Savannah native, has previously exhibited his artwork in galleries in the United Kingdom, North Carolina and Atlanta and received the Public Art Award for the Eagle Nation on Parade competition in 2013.

Why did you want to become an artist?

“I didn’t. I just am. I’ve always made art, even when I was young. It’s just something that I was always good at. My father was a painter so my parents didn’t mind the way some people’s parents would.”

Who inspired you to become an artist?

“Probably my father. I always saw him painting and making frames and mats and things when I was growing up, so art was always around.”

Can you tell us about the pieces in “Infrastructure”?

“They reflect my interest in the interaction between people and spaces and the layers of experience that we live within contemporary society. We live in a world where the simulation is more real than reality. When we interact with the Internet and sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, we accept it as reality and we live with it so commonly now that it’s not even revolutionary.”

“In my paintings, I want to express that layer of experience of contradictory elements… art defies expectation and gives the viewer an ambivalent experience, but forces viewers to ask themselves how they are seeing this and what they are seeing.”

What do you want people to take away from your art when they see the exhibit?

“When people look at my art I want them to think of what they’ve seen and walk away and say ‘How many ways am I interacting with the world around me?’ Art, painting especially, is in an odd place right now. It demands that you stop and think about what you are seeing. I would hope that my work would cause someone to stop and remove their filters for a second. You have to participate a little bit. I want people to see the physical as well as the illusion. Have a moment where you’re disconnected and see what happens. I want them to take their ear buds out and turn their phones off and look at the painting and how they’re interacting with it. I want them to have an aesthetic experience.”