V1 PROUDLY PRESENTS
Chaotic Explosions Of The Eye
A solo exhibition by Andrew Schoultz
Andrew Schoultz, 32, from San Francisco, USA, has in a short amount of time become a rising star on the American art scene. His career covers both galleries and streets, and his art is embedded with a social conscience, where art is just as much action as aesthetics. In the spring 2007 Andrew Schoultz arrived in Europe, where he was lauded for his participation in the influential group exhibition (with the saying title) - what will be told of today tomorrow in the European Kunsthalle.
Schoultz's characteristic line leads the viewer into a world, where past and present, humans and animals, fantasy and reality all intertwine. Schoultz uses oldfangled artistic styles to comment on reoccurring themes in world history: medieval maps from the 15th century, mid-eastern miniature painting, biblical symbolism and re-interpreted folk art blends in with present-day themes such as war, globalisation, and the relationship between man and nature. In consequence Schoultz composes a world where he, like Klee's Angelus Novus, observes the history of repetition: wars are fought, humans are enslaved (by others or themselves), nature is raging and new territories are conquered and lost.
Schoultz's distinct iconography combined with his use of different scales creates an overwhelming visual bombardment of styles, colours and narratives. In Chaotic Explosions of the eye wooden war horses gallops towards bewildered bird flocks, filthy factories, slave ships, cyclones, volcanoes, waterfalls and pyramids with an all-seeing eye. The exhibition consists of drawings, paintings and installations.
Andrew Schoultz is a part of the notable tendency of the American art scene to infuse folk-art with modern day themes - a tendency artists like Richard Colman, Wes Lang, Maya Hayuk, Chris Lindig, Chris Johanson, Jo Jackson and Matt Leines are also a part of.
Andrew Schoultz has exhibited numerous places in the US, e.g. at Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York, New Image Art Gallery in LA and Boston Center for the Arts in Boston. Furthermore he is famous for his public projects, not least in the poverty stricken Mission District in San Francisco and his projects in Indonesia. Recently Gingko Press published a book on Andrew Schoultz's artistic career entitled 'Ulysses - the artwork of Andrew Schoultz.
