Scott-Engel invites a vulnerability and tenderness into his work whilst undermining conventional ideas surrounding masculinity and arbitrary gender roles. Playing off stereotypes, Scott-Engel borrows the structures of boxing equipment such as sparring pads or kick shields to create canvases that serve a safeguard function. Disregarding the rigidity of traditional painting frames, his canvases bend and shield. In doing so, they soften the physical architecture of the gallery itself. Some behave like bodies, slumped on the floor or wrapped around a wall like a protective arm or a lap to lie on. Occasionally resembling mattresses, Scott-Engel also considers place and the privacy of one’s bed as a site for vulnerability.
