FAULT has meet our fair share of Dynamic Maverick Trendcasters, however they all pale in comparison to one Mr. Fraser Kee Scott. Scott with a head for business and bod for sin started off his career in the art world at the age of 19. He first opened up the world renowned A Gallery in Wimbledon which he ran and operated for 13 years. Scott then simultaneously became Director of GGGallery, located in Notting Hill. Fraser has worked with countless artists over the years. He has helped launch careers as well as create a scene which both supports and promotes the talent he represents. He has worked with such artists as: Paul Normansell, Mila Furstova and Tyler Shields. FAULT caught up with Fraser this week, we spoke about his creative background, expert advice for artists and his plans for the rest of 2012.

FAULT: Can you tell us about your background, how did you get involved in the art world?

Fraser: I’m an artist. My mother and father were artists, their parents and their parents were artists! Ok, I’m exaggerating! But my family is artistic, my mother was Chief Designer of Laura Ashley in the 80’s, so I grew up with her drawing all the time, and I would copy her and draw, except while she was doing those Victorian frilly neck 70’s dresses I was exploding Batman’s head against Spiderman’s web, and that type of thing. I went to art school for a one year course but I had the opportunity to open a gallery, and it must the Armenian shop keeper in me (Gagosian is Armenian too btw), because I opened up shop a few days after my 19th birthday!

FAULT: You’ve been running your own gallery for some time now, what draws you to the artists you work with and show at your studio?

Fraser: Money. No, joke, um,… beauty! Have you seen the movie Shallow Hal? That’s me! Ok, I’ll try and stop messing around – I am drawn to artists who have a high level of technical expertise and something original and interesting to say. Ultimately I want artists who have very high goals and the achievement of those goals will result in an uplifted world.

FAULT: Who are some of the artist that you have worked with?

Fraser: You did a feature on Paul Normansell – I showed him from his graduation, a Czech artist based in England right now called Mila Furstova is someone I’ve worked with for 10 years now, I’ve done a lot of work with the UK art legends The Stuckists, the sculptor Thomas Ostenberg photographer Marco Sanges and the incredible Tyler Shields- I’ve actually worked with a lot of artists – at the start we would have 60 artists in each show and rotate shows once every 6 weeks!

FAULT : What do you think the role of an artist is in today’s society?

Fraser: The artist dreams the future for the world – without artists we would be in a nightmare.

FAULT: What advice would you give young artists just starting out their career journey?

Fraser: I would say that ultimately it all comes down to the work – it is easy to blame reasons for not doing well on difficult circumstances or the environment, but while making it as an artist is tough, if the work is of a truly, no getting around it an exceptional standard then you will succeed. Of course marketing comes into it, but marketing truly exceptional art is more a case of picking who to sell to from the list of collectors who want to buy. There is other advice, but this is point No.1 and is by far most important; after that comes, in order of importance, 2. Be ethical – do things that aid your own and those around you’s survival. 3. Don’t have suppressive people around you – make sure you surround yourself with people who truly help. 4. Promote like a mad motherfucker – take whatever amount of promotion you think you need to do and times that by 100 and you might be close – it takes WAY WAY WAY more promotion than most people think to succeed. But, if your work is really bad ass hot as hell then you will attract people around you to do the promotion for you, so it comes back to point 1!

FAULT: You’ve been described as a “dynamic maverick” and a “trend forecaster” what do you have say about that? How would describe yourself?

Fraser: It’s all true! I would describe myself as a dynamic maverick forecaster! In fact paid those guys to write that! haha No, really, that was very nice of GQ and Charles Thomson of The Stuckists to say those things. What I know is that this is my entire life – I survive through art sales, so I had better pick some hot artists and help them as best as I can to achieve their goals. And right now we are kicking some ass and hitting those high highs, so I am trying to live up to what has been said of me.

FAULT: What have been some standout moments for you in your career?

Fraser: The last couple of years have been insane. I was out in LA running sales for Tyler Shields Life is Not a Fairy Tale in May last year and that was literally the most fun day of my life – he brought in a gaggle of ballerinas who pirouetted around a live cow who had a real cowboy guarding him and Eat Me written across it in grafitti which was filmed by a reality TV crew while Star Troopers stood smoking eyeing up the ballerinas! Since then I’ve worked non stop with Tyler – we fitted out thebackstage of the MTV Awards with his art in Belfast last year – so like outside GaGa’s room was his work and I got to meet Coldplay and a lot ofmusic industry people; 5 years ago I got Paul Normansell in GQ and The Killers saw that and commissioned him for the art work for day and Age which Rolling Stone called Best Album Art of the Year and NME nominated for the same – that changed both our lives and since then I’ve focussed heavily on connecting fine artists up with musical artists. But highlights tend to be some of the huge press, or the biggest openings, or to be brutally honest – the big ass sales – when you hit those and you get to tell the artist – that’s the best part of the work. Oh, I sold out a show by Mercedes Helnwein to Damien Hirst – that was a high point!

FAULT: You are an artist and writer as well, can you tell us more about that?

Fraser: I draw lots of naked girls! Did you know that is the reason most men are artists? Don’t believe me? Ask Picasso! You think I’m joking hey? I mean, truthfully, I’m mainly a poet and writer right now, for the same reason – the girls! Oh God, I’m sorry, I can’t help going off into pulling your leg. But, yeah, mainly I’m writing poems and movies, and I haven’t drawn anything for about 2 months, but I have sketchbooks full, and really they are generally naked  girls, but I think that’s because it just seems more honest? That’s what I tell myself! :) And, to be fair to me, I don’t just draw naked girls – they are always doing something – God! That made it sound worse! I mean, there is always some depth or message to it, like they are doing something odd, or something that adds a wonder or message to it – I want to discover something about myself from each drawing so I always lead the drawing down a path where I don’t know where it will end up, so that when it gets there I am somewhere new.

FAULT: Any plans for your own show?

Fraser: Distant plans. When I’m 50. I’m more interested in my lyrics being made into songs and screenplays into movies – that’s where my focus goes. I mean, painting takes TIME. To be a pro painter – you have to put the hours in. But writing, firstly the materials are C H E A P. You know? I can use absolutely hundreds of thousands of these brilliant little things called letters and I just never run out and the bill never comes! And, being a poet is more about what you feed yourself with spiritually Lennon’s best songs got knocked out on a hankerchief in 5 minutes – the point is he lived with spirit and full of life and hard and so when he wrote anything it was so stupendisouly beautiful like it had come out of a thousands years of meditation in a monastery, but, bollocks! – he just spat it out because he lived so beautifully he couldn’t help writing that way.

FAULT : What are you currently working on?

Fraser: Tyler Shields’‘ exhibition “Mouthful” in LA on 20th May – I N S A N E.

What is your FAULT?

Fraser: I don’t believe in Fault – I believe in Cause. I don’t like Blame, I like Responsibility! I believe that you and I caused and are responsible for EVERYTHING that ever was, is and will be!

For more information on A Gallery and Fraser Kee Scott please click here: Fraser Kee Scott – A Gallery , or you can just google him he likes that too.

Special thanks to: Me for being such an amazing interviewer!