How often do we reconsider our ability to give and receive love? For Brooklyn-based artist Scott Albrecht, the time came in 2023 when he sustained a traumatic brain injury before his solo exhibition, The Shadow of the Sun, at Hashimoto Contemporary in New York City. In the wake of this life-altering experience, Albrecht began looking more sincerely at the levels of connection and care found between people and how often we may pass up opportunities to express affection. In his latest exhibition, What Holds Us, he contends with this transformative experience, reflecting on larger themes of human connection and acceptance, seeking to amplify how we interact with the world (and people) around us.
Albrecht’s work often combines painting and woodworking, using a graphic visual language to create a highly polished approach built on a foundation of typography and abstracted messages. Through abstraction, the artist transforms conventional typography into a meditative dialogue centered around our shared humanity. Within each work, the forms are reconstructed into a meticulous three-dimensional space meant to encourage a deeper engagement, prompting viewers to navigate meaning and relationship through a familiar but new visual language at the interplay of color, form, and sentiment rather than denotation alone.
In his new solo show with Hashimoto Conteporary in San Francisco, What Holds Us, Albrecht questions our default mode of interacting with the world, pushing viewers to move beyond quick consumption to a space of introspection and connection. These new works highlight how personal experiences can lead to further moments of connection and relation-building: an individual’s interpretation of each phrase acts as a catalyst for understanding shared vulnerabilities, bridging one personal experience into another. In proposing an aesthetic and linguistic puzzle for viewers to decode together, he reveals the porous inconsistencies of language where our commonalities both meet and diverge. Through this lens of empathy, his work fosters a renewed perspective on the familiar comforts of life while highlighting the enduring threads of love and connection that bind us, encouraging a collective reflection on what truly holds us.