Dread Scott first received national attention in 1989 when his art became the center of controversy over its use of the American flag while he was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a B.F.A. This work was denounced by President G.H.W. Bush and outlawed by Congress.  His art has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, and at the Pori Art Museum in Pori, Finland.  In 2012, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) presented his performance Dread Scott: Decision.  He is a recipient of a Creative Capital Foundation grant and Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts

I make revolutionary art to propel history forward. This is a world where a tiny handful of people control the great wealth and knowledge humanity as a whole has created. It is a world of profound polarization, exploitation and suffering.  Billions are excluded from intellectual development and full participation in society. It does not have to be this way and my art is part of forging a radically different world.  The work illuminates the misery that this society creates for so many people and encourages the viewer to envision how the world could be.  

I work in a range of media: performance, installation, video, photography, print and painting.  The thread that connects my work is an engagement with sharp social questions confronting humanity and a desire to push formal and conceptual boundaries as part of contributing to artistic development.  My projects are presented in venues ranging from major museum galleries to street corners.  Sometimes the work is presented to an unexpecting audience. I bring contemporary art to a broader public and the audience is often an active element of the artwork.