Thursday, April 29, 2010

Allison Schulnik

9 comments:

  1. Allison Schulnik@
    TONY WIGHT GALLERY
    845 West Washington Boulevard,
    Chicago
    60607

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  2. "The four paintings featured in Home for Hobo Too are slathered so thickly with paint that the term
    “impasto” seems inadequate. Schulnik’s characters are a sorry group—hobos, clowns, losers, vermin,
    withering flowers—that, when teamed with her intensely expressionistic paint handling, result in images
    that are simultaneously anxious and dreamy, tragic and endearing. In the artist’s words, these
    paintings “blend earthly fact, blatant fiction and lots of oil paint to form a stage of tragedy, farce, and
    raw, ominous beauty—at times capturing otherworld buffoonery, and other times presenting a simple
    earthly dignified moment.”

    Press Release

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  3. A Christmas card! Looks really kitsch - I quite like it.

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  4. Hi, C.Painting.

    Glad to see something in Chicago. I started to do a similar blog in Dallas about a year ago, then let it slide. Think I'll get it started again.

    I believe one of my friends in Mexico City also does such a blog. Maybe we can get a network of people interested in actual painting again! :-)

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  5. That's a great idea Cross.

    I'm registered with Glass Tire and like to get some idea of the Texas scene - but a Dallas blog would be cool.

    I look forward to seeing more of what's happening in Chicago - and not just at the big galleries.

    Go C-Painting!

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  6. As for Schulnik – the JPEGS hardly do justice to the scale of her stuff. They may look like greetings cards on the screen but her preferred scale seems around 7’ X 5’6”. Once you realise this, the facture takes on an almost sculptural quality. I guess the idea is to contrast the somewhat sentimental or trite content with a vigorous treatment of materials: as a kind of distancing effect.

    Interestingly, AS isn’t drawn to expanding on her materials, as others working a similar vein often do. No broken plates, no armfuls of grass or Styrofoam nuggets. Just oil paint – as far as I can see.

    It’s hard to think of anyone doing this on this scale – probably because it must be very expensive. Also, small works like Small Bear Head (2009) also belie their scale on the screen. The close-up details on the website could as easily be on an imposing scale, and it would be fun to see her crop the image like that on a really big one, and kind of concentrate the nuances of handling, without letting the space give the viewer any breaks or relief.

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  7. Hi Cross, Cap, Thanks for the support.

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  8. hello Chicago!

    I love this format of blog for painting.

    @CAP yep, scale info makes me look at this twice.

    Thank you for posting
    x

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  9. I agree Cross and CAP, it would be great to see what's happening in other places, Dallas and else where.

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