Scott Ross was born and raised in Union Lake, MI. and earned BA (1997) degrees in Ceramics and Creative Writing from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. He has earned his MFA (2012) in Sculpture from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). Since 1997, he has also been building and firing wood-kilns at his home studio in Union Lake, MI.
During the last ten years he has participated in 46 exhibitions (13 solo and 33 two person/group with 3 international), including exhibitions at the Museo del Vino, Laumeier Sculpture Park and The Tarble Arts Center. These exhibitions are representative of his continued interest in sculpture, installation and ceramics as vehicles for self-expression. In 2006 he became a part time studio assistant to Peter Callas until mid-2007. In 2008 he was invited by sculptor Nino Caruso to Todi, Italy to be his studio assistant for his retrospective “On the Road”. These assistantships and participation were the genesis for his interest in teaching and committing to art as a profession. Since the spring of 2010, he has built several large-scale public works that are installed at SIUE, IL (2010 and 2011), Granite City Sculpture Park, IL (2011), Josephine Sculpture Park, KY (2013), City of Evansville, IN (2015), and the city of Frankfort, KY (2017). In the fall of 2011 he established The Placeless Space Studio, an alternative exhibition space, in an 8,000 sq. ft. warehouse on the grounds of America’s Central Port (ACP), Granite City, IL. The relationship with ACP, through establishing the studio and exhibition, resulted in a public commission for a large steel sculpture titled “Wake of the Flood” which was installed in October of 2012 on the ACP grounds. Shortly after finishing and opening an 8,000 sq. ft. installation at The Placeless Space Studio, Scott accepted the Assistant Professor of Sculpture position at Kentucky State University (KSU), where he taught both traditional and contemporary sculptural practices and ceramics from 2012-2016. While completing the Spring semester at KSU he was offered and accepted the Sculpture position at Linfield College. He designed, then constructed, two woodkilns in the Midwest before making the long drive to Oregon to start the Fall 2016 semester. Scott taught at Linfield College from 2016-2019 where he built a dynamic sculpture area and designed a new curriculum for the 3D areas in the Department of Art. He decided to step away from teaching for the next year to invest his time and energy into his studio practice. Residencies at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Cobb Mountain Art and Ecology Project occurred during 2019, 2020 and 2021.
In October (2018), Scott co-lead a pre-symposium firing of the anagama at the Clay Studio of Missoula, MT with Jody Johnstone. He gave a lecture on his working methods and firing techniques at the “Woodfire Symposium: Cultural Confluence” in Helena, MT.
Scott lead a firing in November 2019. Last winter (2020-2021) Scott was again at Cobb Art and Ecology Project for a longer residency, building cabins and making new work and firing the anagama last March. Two wood firing workshops of the High Lonesome Anagama, at his home/studio in Union Lake, MI, will be taking place during the month of November and again in December of 2021. Forthcoming are a number of “Scott Ross Workshops” and lectures, ranging from large-scale public sculpture to kiln building, clay techniques and firing methods.