ABOUT
Allison Schulnik (b. 1978) works across painting, sculpture, and animation, seamlessly transitioning between mediums and imbuing her work with a distinct sensibility that melds theatricality with intense emotional vulnerability. Known for her uncanny approach to traversing the internal and immaterial terrains of nostalgia, childhood memories, and dreams, Schulnik choreographs an honest, complex, and contemporary portrait of new motherhood and life seen through the purple haze and black silence of the desert.
An important figure in the LA art scene, Schulnik was born in San Diego, CA in 1978 and lives and works in Sky Valley, CA. Schulnik is well known for her expressive, encaustic oil paintings, playful ceramics, and stop motion animated videos. The artist and her family relocated from Los Angeles to the Mojave Desert region in 2018, marking a stark shift in the tonality and themes of her paintings which now focus on the flora, fauna, and wildlife of her new surroundings. The new paintings firmly align Schulnik’s works among a rich history of artists who sought deep personal meaning and internal reflection from the desert.
SELECTED artWORKS
ALLISON SCHULNIK
Katy's Flowers, 2023
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 ′′
EXHIBITIONS
Allison Schulnik’s films have been featured in internationally renowned festivals and museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; and the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy. Solo exhibitions of Schulnik’s work have been presented at The Pit, Los Angeles, CA; P·P·O·W, New York, NY; ZieherSmith, New York, NY; Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; and Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK. Her group exhibitions have appeared in prestigious venues such as the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL; and the Jewish Museum, New York, NY. Schulnik’s work is included in permanent collections at institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Santa Barbara Art Museum, Santa Barbara, CA; and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.