Scott Gordley
On display from September 5 through November 2, 2024
Lobby exhibit available for viewing Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 5pm,
and for the two hours preceding performances and film screenings.
For over 35 years, Scott Gordley has been involved in higher education as a faculty member and administrator, serving as department chair for 3 different colleges/universities including Mitchell College, New London, CT; Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ and Ringling College of Art & Design, Sarasota, FL where he maintains Professor Emeritus status. Mr. Gordley has participated in two graduate programs—one in English literature (Wesleyan University Graduate Liberal Studies), and a subsequent degree program in Media Arts (MFA, Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Video & Performance). Throughout those years he has also maintained a parallel career as a nationally renowned illustrator and painter, with a broad scope of creative projects from major editorial publications including Time, Esquire, Newsweek, Washington Monthly, London Times and Reader’s Digest, publishing houses including book covers for Prentice Hall, William Morrow, Viking Penguin and portrait commissions including illustrations of President Ronald Reagan; Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; Political analyst William Kristol and television radio host Larry King for Washington Monthly, President Bill Clinton for the German weekly publication, Focus; New York Magazine theater critic Edith Oliver; Tiger Woods for Time magazine; both Cher and Madonna for Esquire magazine and famed actor James Earl Jones for the Eugene O’Neill Theater in NYC.
Mr. Gordley has been the primary portrait artist for the United States Coast Guard Academy for the past 30 years having been commissioned to paint 5 Academy Superintendents as well as the first black Coast Guard cutter Commander, Colonel Merle J. Smith. Additionally he has painted numerous college Presidents (most recently, President Janet L. Steinmayer, Lesley College, Boston, MA), as well as world dignitaries including American diplomat and Vice Consul to France, Hiram Bingham IV. His work appears in many public and private collections and has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the United States and Europe. In 1999 Mr. Gordley had a 20-yr. retrospective at the Avenida Museum of International Art in Vienna, Austria and his exhibition at the famed Apollo Theatre in New York City in the summer of 2008 was a tribute to the history of jazz.
In his capacity as university professor Mr. Gordley has presented papers at numerous national and international conferences and his research has been published in numerous international Arts and Education journals. In addition to his art, Mr. Gordley is a jazz saxophonist, having appeared on stage and on numerous recordings with national jazz & blues artists for over 3 decades when not fronting his own band—the Scott Gordley Quartet.
Mr. Gordley currently maintains a thriving studio practice in Stonington, CT.
