The Life Unaquatic

Spoke Art is San Francisco’s newest art gallery and publishing house. Following a year of pop up exhibits in New York City, San Francisco and Oakland, we have finally settled down into our new permanent space on Sutter Street in San Francisco’s dynamic Lower Nob Hill neighborhood. We specialize in emerging new contemporary artists with a firm emphasis on figurative and illustrative works. Our regular exhibits open the first Thursday of every month, and we specialize in connecting collectors with secondary market works namely in the fields of pop surrealism, low brow and street art. Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried film. Oil paints have been used in Europe since the 12th century for simple decoration, but were not widely adopted as an artistic medium until the early 15th century. Common modern applications of oil paint are in finishing and protection of wood in buildings and exposed metal structures such as ships and bridges. Its hard-wearing properties and luminous colors make it desirable for both interior and exterior use on wood and metal. Due to its slow-drying properties, it has recently been used in paint-on-glass animation. Thickness of coat has considerable bearing on time required for drying: thin coats of oil paint dry relatively quickly. Scott Listfield (b. 1976, Boston, MA) is known for his paintings featuring a lone exploratory astronaut lost in a landscape cluttered with pop culture icons, corporate logos, and tongue-in-cheek science fiction references. Scott studied art at Dartmouth College, for which his parents have finally forgiven him. After some time spent abroad, Scott returned to America where, a little bit before the year 2001, he began painting astronauts and, sometimes, dinosaurs. Scott has been profiled in Wired Magazine, the Boston Globe, and on WBZ-TV Boston. His work has also appeared in New American Paintings and Surface Magazine. In 2010 he was named a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant finalist, and was the official artist of 2011 Boston First Night. He has exhibited his work in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Boston, and many other charming places.