HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY

HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY is pleased to present Rhythms, new paintings and an immersive installation by Andrew Schoultz. In new paintings and murals 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 and the gallery walls themselves.  As the show titles suggests, Schoultz’s work draws on movements marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, and opposing forces in a cyclical nature of phenomena over time.

Sourcing inspiration from hundreds of years of art history, ranging from stained glass, map making, miniature paintings, Op-Art, Naturalism and comic books, Schoultz’s imagery depicts an ephemeral history bound to repeat itself. Notions of war, spirituality and sociopolitical turmoil 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, hope and generosity. 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, perched owls 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.