Artist Scott Froschauer died suddenly, as recalled by writer and collaborator Kristine Schomaker, who had known him for almost ten years. A Shoebox artist—one of the early ones—Froschauer moved between collaboration and inquiry with a steady insistence on learning, listening, and building work in community.
Public language, placed where life happens
Froschauer’s practice centered on language and public space. He made signs—not directives or warnings, but prompts that nudged perception. Works bearing phrases such as You Are Magic, Word Hunger, and If There Is To Be Peace In The Nations There Must Be Peace In The Cities appeared on streets and in galleries, aiming to reach people who weren’t necessarily looking for art. He wrote that each phrase or object held deep meaning for him, yet his goal was to erase his own meaning once a piece was made, leaving room for another person’s. That generosity extended to how the works circulated: people stopped on sidewalks, photographed them, and shared them with friends who needed to hear something at just that moment.
In his final exchanges with Schomaker—a proposal followed by a necessary decline—Froschauer replied with two simple words: All good. The ease and lack of ego she describes align with the sensibility that coursed through his public interventions.
Mirrors, perception, and a practice of seeing
Froschauer wrote that seeing himself had been the greatest challenge of his life. Witnessing his own assumptions and identities reshaped how he moved through the world: My work is a mirror. My actions are a mirror. Its all a reflection, if I take the time to look. That insight informed collaborations with Schomaker, including an art salon on consent, negotiation, and the male gaze—organized as a communal space to inform an upcoming exhibition and to find collaborators.
When Schomaker invited him into her ongoing project Perceive Me, he proposed recreating Manets Olympia as an echo enigma print mounted with a one-way mirror, so viewers would see themselves reflected back. He argued that a works fullest power emerges when the perceiver is also perceived, prompting us to reconsider our own looking. Elsewhere, he presented a solo show titled Echo Enigma at Ark Gallery. The remembrance also locates him amid Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo CA, and at the Brewery Artwalk in 2022.
Schomaker writes that he was following his dreams to the end—bringing joy, clarity, and forward motion into rooms and onto streets. The world, she suggests, feels the absence of someone who cared so openly and made space for others to see and be seen.
Vía artandcakela.com
