At The Table With: Scott Csoke

Ft. pink taper candles and a Tom Collins

Feb 14, 2024

At The Table With is a monthly interview series that explores the ideas of creativity and personal style through the eyes of my friends (or people I would like to be friends with!). This month’s guest is one of my favorite artists, Scott Csoke!

Scott is a painter currently living and working in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We share a love of antiques, majolica pottery, and beautiful, storied spaces (“I’m just obsessed with old things,” Scott wrote to me.) To be honest, I probably border on super fan. I think they have such a knack for exploring a visual world from another time, one that includes Bunny Mellon’s basket collection and Staffordshire dogs on many a mantle.

Through neon pink brushstrokes, dogs perched beneath rainbows, and playfully warped still lifes, Scott’s work thoughtfully explores themes around queer identity and what we consider “queer art”. In an interview with Loeffler Randall, Scott said, "I really love being able to make things with which other people can identify. I see my work as being so personal and vulnerable and a direct reflection of whatever is going on in my head. I just want people to see this as a way to understand not only me, but queerness on a greater level. We rarely get to see queer art that isn’t directly about sex or intimacy and oftentimes that is what is popular and put on a pedestal.”

Scott is one of those people that further projects their art through what they wear and what surrounds them. One peek at their apartment tells you all you need to know: it’s a world of pink gingham, hand-painted chair rail molding, patterned lampshades, and candlesticks galore. I’d be remiss not to encourage you to take a scroll through Scott’s outfit account, @mygayoutfit, for a wealth of inspiration of the puff sleeve and polka dot variety.

I asked Scott a few questions…

Ali LaBelle: Imagine your dream dinner party. You can invite anyone, serve anything, and invite whoever you’d like. Where is it?

Scott Csoke: The Waverly Inn.

AL: What’s on the table?

SC: Candelabras, lettuceware, and pink candles.

*Dinner Party at my Brooklyn Apartment* (2022), lettuce plate by Tory Burch, vintage candelabra via Newel

AL: Who’s there?

SC: Liberace, SZA, Fran Lebowitz, Kathy Griffin, Chaka Khan, and Jacob Elordi would be my date.

AL: What are you eating or drinking?

SC: I don’t really get excited about food, but I will be drinking a Tom Collins.

AL: What music is playing?

SC: Elton John’s live concert in Russia 1979, followed by lots of Liberace.

AL: Switching gears. When do you feel most creative? What do you do when you are in a creative slump?

SC: I feel most creative when I have something I want to say or talk about, whether that’s a direct response to something I saw or an idea I’ve been trying to materialize. I love conveying ideas and feelings in a visual way. I look at a lot of old things, a lot of decorating books, and a lot of fashion. When I'm in a slump, I just have to sit with it. It always passes and is always temporary. I try to go into stores and find inspiration there. Longing is always a great source of inspiration.