Scooter LaForge: Please Don’t Feed the Animals

Curated by Joshua Nierodzinski

Booth #1002

Please Don’t Feed the Animals by Scooter LaForge is an invitation to a beastly banquet that confronts the link between humanity’s cruel hunger for animals and our global climate crisis.

In his latest installation, LaForge continues to shock and seduce with his signature anthropomorphic motifs in service of a direct warning about gluttony and destruction. The centerpiece is a table with 10 plates, each representing an animal glazed in quick gestures that resemble the aftermath of a meal. Alluding to the memorial intent of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, each place setting honors famous animal activists or calls out offending corporations. Unlike Chicago, many of the platters and teacups on LaForge’s table are smashed and bloody. With the hand-painted tablecloth singed by fire, the entire scene conjures a pop-horror hybrid of the Mad Hatter’s tea party and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where each plate becomes a tombstone for millions of animals.

LaForge invites us to gorge on his uncompromising vision of where excess and greed are leading all of us. While it’s not a pretty picture, there is hope for a better future if we curb our ravenous appetites.

This installation is made entirely with upcycled materials and found objects.

About Scooter LaForge

Scooter LaForge was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and moved to New York City in 2001 for a Cooper Union residency. Living in the East Village for the past 18 years, his unique style mines the rich catalog of art history, infusing classical themes with a colorful sensibility. Bridging the gap between pop art and contemporary painting, LaForge’s work redefines the medium for today. LaForge works in various media, including painting, sculpture, and drawing, employing unorthodox techniques and striking iconic images. In 2015, the artist was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. He is a frequent collaborator with his friend Patricia Field. Scooter’s recent exhibitions include Creation of the Animals at Empirical Nonsense; Homo Eruptus, his second solo show at Howl! Happening; and Elsewhere Paintings at Nancy Littlejohn Fine Arts, Houston, TX.

About Joshua Nierodzinski

Joshua Nierodzinski is an artist, curator, and organizer. His paintings focus on rituals of eating, the historical symbolism of food, and the psychosocial dynamics of dining. As a co-founder of HEKLER, an artist-run platform focused on hospitality and conflict, he collaborates with artists, activists, writers, and curators to produce welcoming educational experiences that create a living archive and solidarity network. Joshua is the assistant director of Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project.

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