HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY

Halsey McKay is thrilled to present, Earth Oeuvre, our first solo exhibition with Los Angeles based artist Andrew Schoultz. Schoultz deploys a battery of familiar and new motifs to depict the ambiguity and turmoil of contemporary reality. His vocabulary is densely packed with meticulously rendered images and patterns that shimmer in optically vibrating paintings on canvas. Sourcing inspiration from hundreds of years of art history, ranging from stained glass, map making, miniature paintings, and comic books, Schoultz’s imagery depicts an ephemeral history bound to repeat itself. Notions of war, spirituality and sociopolitical imperialism are reoccurring themes, which shrewdly parallel an equally repetitive contemporary pursuit of accumulation and power. While his depicted world seems chaotic and frenzied, it also implies a constant sense of wonder.

Moving between representation and abstraction, these hypnotic works are both dizzying and surprisingly meditative allegories that raise questions without posing clear answers. There are implicit references to cataclysm in his renderings of smashed or sinking cultural artifacts, fiery skies, volcanoes and twisting trees. While he points to the many contemporary threats to civilization, always present is the possibility of positive rebirth and hope as meditative patterns, hum into hypnotizing vortexes.