Allison Schulnik's Upcoming Museum Exhibitions

Allison Schulnik’s paintings, sculptures, and clay animations show the same relish for gutsy, expressionistic, surreal forms in the "Ex•pose: Allison Schulnik" show (Feb. 24-28, 2013). Bright colors emerge through an overall dark palette, as paintings and clay animations alike take on the sense of an ever-morphing figure.

The figures of hobos, clowns, and motley creatures intertwine into the environment and each other, forming moments of abstraction and then a semblance of representation again.

Influenced by kindred artists of the past such as the macabre Belgian painter James Ensor (1860-1949), Schulnik continues in a vein of surreal imagery that is haunting, mournful, and beautiful all at once. In her first museum exhibition, her paintings persist in the exploration of fantastic figures and characters on the fringes of society. The exhibition also includes all three of her animated films: "Hobo Clow"n (2008), "Forest" (2009), and "Mound" (2011 - shown above).

Allison Schulnik was born in San Diego in 1978 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She received a BFA in experimental animation from the California Institute of the Arts. In addition to art making, she has a background in dance and is also a musician. Her works can be seen in notable collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art; the Chaney Family Collection; the Musée des beaux-arts, Montreal; and the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine.

Another upcoming exhibitions for artist Allison Schulnik includes ""The Very Large Array: San Diego/Tijuana Aritsts in the MCA Collection" at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, featuring more than eighty artists and representing five decades of collecting, this expansive group show of Museum acquisitions highlights many of the region’s most beloved and accomplished artists - including the San Diego born artist (through June 4, 2013).

Finally, "Paint Things: Beyond the Stretcher" (Jan. 27-April 21, 2013) navigates the recent direction of contemporary artists to expand painting beyond the stretcher into sculptural forms at The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. This group exhibition focuses on the growing spatial and material freedom in painting as it merges with installation and sculpture.

It invites viewers to collectively re-examine the age-old practice of painting in a new light and consider the limitless possibilities for the future of the medium and its physical context. Its expansion and spatial investigations by exhibiting artists asks us to think about painting as it relates to physical, social, political, and emotional space.

Source: Mark Moore Gallery