ANDREW SCHOULTZ

Andrew Schoultz’s stylized, symbolic lexicon includes archaic military machines, volcanic eruptions, Greek vases, mythical creatures and iconography from the Great Seal of the United States. Weaving them together with formal references to mid-20th-century Op Art, Schoultz depicts a complex and unstable world. He makes historic references to antique etchings and Persian miniature painting as well as to William T. Wiley, M. C. Escher and Mission School street art. But Schoultz’s art is very much his own – an intense vision of a planet threatened by overcrowding and over-consumption and societies under siege by the governments that are there to protect them. We live in a dizzying time.

As important as the vocabulary of symbols that those familiar with Schoultz’s work will immediately recognize, is his use of the tools of classic Op Art to create visual effects like vibration or trembling. Such effects can literally induce physical sensations of disorientation in a viewer. For the artist, they function as a concrete representation that best describes the zeitgeist.

Central to what is likely his most ambitious gallery exhibition to date is an 11×34 foot painting he calls Cathedral. Three years in the making, it’s an epic cycle examining the history of the Western world—of greed, partisanship, war for profit, self-interest, and the failure of governments. This painting specifically, and the exhibition generally, is a wake-up call… a plea to examine how we treat each other and the environment.

MOTHER NATURE, FATHER TIME