Andrew Schoultz: Yonder

In his fourth solo exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery, Los Angeles-based Andrew Schoultz deploys a battery of both familiar and new motifs to depict the ambiguity and turmoil of our contemporary reality.   

Intertwining his pictographic vocabulary with densely-packed, meticulously-rendered patterns, and using bright, often fluorescent hues, he creates shimmering, optically vibrating paintings on canvas, paper, and the walls of the gallery.  Moving between representation and abstraction, these hypnotic works are both dizzying and surprisingly meditative allegories that broach questions while suggesting there are no clear answers.

In addition to erupting volcanos, American flags, Greek vases and coiled snakes, enter a massive bull: snorting, head lowered, ready to charge.  He’s a symbol of strength and virility — as well as of a booming stock market.  There’s the maxim of grabbing the bruiser by the horns, a macho flaunting of control or power.  But the beast’s presence in a china shop is a metaphor for tone-deafness, negligence and destruction.   

There’s also an owl — traditional companion of the goddesses Athena (associated with wisdom and skill) and Lakshmi (who with Vishnu, creates, protects and transforms the universe).  In the West, the wise, old owl is symbolic of knowledge and magic.  The sighting of one is a benign omen in China, Japan and India, but a harbinger of death for the Romans and many indigenous peoples of the Americas. 

As always, there are implicit references to cataclysm — smashed cultural artifacts and fiery red-orange skies — pointing to the many contemporary threats to civilization.  But omnipresent is the possibility of positive re-creation and hope.

Born in 1975 in Milwaukee, Schoultz was a professional skateboarder before moving to San Francisco in 1998.  The vocabulary of his outdoor murals — wooden war horses, limb-less trees, tornadoes, beasts, clouds of smoke, and flying arrows — has become an important part of the urban fabric in California and around the world.  His work has been extensively exhibited and acquired by important public and private collections internationally.