Judith Scott

Judith Scott (1943–2005) was a visual artist, isolated from outside influence due to Down syndrome, deafness, and decades of institutionalization. She created fiber sculptures during her tenure in the Creative Growth Studio from 1987 until her death.

Scott was born in Ohio with her fraternal twin sister Joyce in 1943. Scott was institutionalized at the age of seven at the Columbus State School. She remained in state institutions until 1985, when her sister became her legal guardian and brought her to California. Scott entered the Creative Growth Studio, initially displaying little artistic interest until a visiting artist workshop with the sculptor Sylvia Seventy, during which Scott discovered the medium of fiber art. Her wrapped sculptures, abstract in shape, were sourced from hand-built armatures made of discarded or found materials, often concealing an inner structure or cache of items. Her practice was marked by her independence, self-direction, and for never repeating a form or color scheme in her multimedia textile sculptures.

Scott’s work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in a retrospective exhibition and is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Smithsonian in Washington DC, among many others. Her work has also been shown at Gugging, Austria; the Museum of Everything, London; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; White Columns, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Ricco Maresca, New York; and Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco.