The Dedee Shattuck Gallery is pleased to present Flip Scipio: Talking Guitars, featuring the drawings and guitars of internationally renowned luthier Flip Scipio.

Raised in post-war Netherlands and now based in New York City, Scipio has made and restored fretted instruments for Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Ry Cooder, Chris Eldridge, Bill Frisell, Richie Havens, Norah Jones, Patty Larkin, Damien Rice, Carly Simon, Rufus Wainwright, and many others. As Scipio writes of his work, music is “that common language that allows people all across the world to communicate or at least understand each other without receiving specific instruction... my workshop is my church, in which I find a relief in concentration that I often lack in the outside world, solace in being able to repair broken things, and a kind of forgiveness for the things I don’t seem to be able to achieve. At best, my shop is a place of meditation where I can find moments of transcendence into a place of better understanding and trust without having to close something else out.”

Hired by the esteemed American guitar dealer and collector George Gruhn, Scipio was a staff member of the repair department at the Rhode Island based Guild Guitar Company from 1986 until 1988. He was also the repair-shop manager for Mandolin Brothers Ltd., the legendary Staten Island NY guitar shop that specialized in rare fretted instruments. In January of 2017 Scipio gave a series of lectures on various aspects of Guitar Construction and Repair at the prestigious Cartagena XI Festival Internacional de Música in Cartagena, Colombia.

The Dedee Shattuck Gallery invites the public to an artists' reception to celebrate the opening on Saturday, September 8, from 5-7pm, including a concert by Flip Scipio at 6pm.

All Receptions are FREE and OPEN to the public