Recall. Reframe. Respond. The Art of Paul Scott
Cincinnati Art Museum
October 10, 2025 – January 4, 2026
Ceramic tableware with intricate blue patterning has been a staple in dining room décor for centuries. Contemporary artist Paul Scott (British, b. 1953) carries this tradition forward, yet his designs are anything but conventional. More than 50 of his works, which present updated narratives about art, history and American experiences, will be on view at the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) in the exhibition Recall. Reframe. Respond. The Art of Paul Scott.
Paul Scott breaks, reassembles, erases and adds details to ceramics from the 1800s and 1900s using transfer-printing and collage processes to create new “historical” patterns. In addition to these repurposed antique pieces and the artist’s new ceramic forms, Recall. Reframe. Respond. debuts Scott’s limited-edition letterpress artist book. A selection of his works will be paired with artworks from CAM’s American art collection to “reframe” the way audiences see, experience and reflect on these objects.
“This is not your grandparents’ blue-and-white china,” notes Amy Dehan, the museum’s curator of decorative arts and design. “Paul Scott’s work is subversive in the best way—witty, wry and challenging. It urges us to look critically at dominant narratives while making connections across human experience, places and time.”
Recall. Reframe. Respond. also celebrates local artists and voices, featuring responses to a selection of Scott’s works written by community members. Notably, the exhibition also presents two transferware pieces on which he collaborated with Cincinnati-based artist Terence Hammonds.
Based in the northwest English county of Cumbria, Paul Scott is an artist, author, curator and educator who is best known for his unique ability to employ extensive historical and technical knowledge of ceramics to create provocative artworks and social commentary. During a visit to Ohio State University in 1999, Paul Scott became inspired by historical British-made blue-and-white ceramic transferwares that depicted American scenes, directly engaging American consumers. After his visit, Paul Scott challenged himself to create his own versions that recontextualize the messages embedded within these historical works by focusing on contemporary imagery and subjects. Scott’s New American Scenery series reflects his personal experiences of being and traveling in America, and, in his words, the need to “rebalance the narrative with something more contemporary and inclusive.”
Paul Scott shares: “Industrial transferwares were part of the new media revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They have always carried images and patterns which have journeyed through media, time, histories and geographies, capturing and changing meanings as they have travelled. Cumbrian Blue(s) contemporary artworks reference these original wares, so I very much enjoy opportunities which allow me to juxtapose my 21st century iterations alongside the historic in visual dialogues that act to re-animate (sometimes forgotten) objects from museum stores. For Recall. Reframe. Respond., I am excited to extend this process to include paintings, prints, photographs and other artworks from Cincinnati Art Museum’s extensive collections, creating new ‘conversations’ and reanimations.”
Over the last three decades, Paul Scott has established an international reputation. His work can be found in public and private collections around the globe including The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.
Transfer-printed ware, or transferware, describes industrially produced ceramic tableware that has a decorative pattern applied by transferring a print first from an engraved copper plate to specialized paper and finally to the ceramic’s surface. This term also applies to modern wares with printed graphic surfaces made using more recent printmaking techniques and decal transfer technologies.
The exhibition will be on view in the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Gallery and the Manuel and Rhoda Mayerson Gallery (124 and 125) located across from the Terrace Café. Several works will be displayed in other museum galleries, to be in conversation with the collections.
CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM
953 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45202
