Sam Scott: Ascending Zones: Opening Saturday, March 21, 2026

The exhibition presents a selection of oil paintings from Sam Scott's iconic series Ascending Zones which marked a pivotal chapter in his career. Created in the wake of a profound cultural reconciliation, these transcendent landscapes confront history, material, and spirit through the language of paint.

In 1999, Sam Scott was one of three artists chosen by the State Department to represent the United States in person at its first post-war cultural exchange with the Republic of Vietnam, through the Meridian Foundation and the Kimsey Foundation. A lifelong peace advocate, Scott described the experience as a profound personal reconciliation that helped to “purify him from the agony and rage of the war.”

From that encounter, and a profound connection with his colleagues artists in Vietnam, emerged the Ascension Series (2000–2001), a major body of work that has never before been exhibited as a unified group.

The paintings in Ascending Zones are meditations on the power of reconciliation, on the love for life, and the uplifting gifts of nature. Scott went on revisiting in his mind places that inspired him and lifted his spirit: glimpses of the sun rays, Spring in the Sonora desert, or stones rolling in the glimmering sea water. These transcendent images praise the beauty of nature. Executed in a motion from the bottom left to the top right of the canvas, they are also paintings about painting itself: on strata, layering, and the behavior of paint. They are at once physical and spiritual.

One work from this series has been selected for the permanent collection of the New Mexico State Capitol. Yet the series as a whole has remained largely undiscussed. Ascending Zones brings this pivotal body of work into focus for the first time. Alongside the Ascension Zones paintings, the exhibition will include recent small-scale works on canvas (2024–2025) and a few nature watercolors, offering an intimate counterpoint and a view into Scott’s continued evolution.