Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present Andrew Schoultz’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, Full Circle. The exhibition features new paintings and works on paper from the Los Angeles-based contemporary artist. Full Circle opens on October 25 and will remain on view through December 1, 2018.

As the title suggests, Full Circle, provides Schoultz the opportunity to re-examine his diverse visual lexicon, including motifs and symbols that originate from his earliest artistic endeavors, some reaching as far back as childhood. These personal emblems take on new roles in the context of Schoultz’s fine art practice. Symbols such as castles, all-seeing eyes, and serpents, together explore cyclical patterns and power structures in history. Recalling themes of war, natural disasters and globalization, the works combine his icons with his visual style characterized by densely layered compositions and expressive line work. As is the case with the majority of Schoultz’s oeuvre, the works here evoke narrative and inspire conversation. The artist points to his themes, though allows the viewer to reach his or her own conclusions.

For this current body of work, Schoultz redirects his focus to explore formal elements of painting such as composition, depth, and color. One of the most evident aspects we see here is the artist’s intense use of gradient color in circular compositions. Each band of color, emanating from a shared point, appears to extend infinitely beyond the canvas, recalling radio waves. Schoultz modernizes the familiar 1928 RKO Radio Pictures icon, which shows a radio tower at the top of the world with clear, circular bands of broadcast waves. Applying this iconic image to the present, Schoultz replaces the tower with an eye, as these new bands take on a different role in our world that is saturated with digital information and surveillance. Schoultz creates a sense of depth by applying a coat of resin between layers of paint, juxtaposing the expressive hand-painted concentric circles with the sleek surface of the resin. The artist’s application of color here, is both symbolic and formal, as the gradients change from dark to light, while expanding the artist’s palette. Breaking away from his own traditions, the artist here has given himself the freedom to experiment with bright neons and striking color combinations, exploring new directions and possibilities for his practice.

Born in 1975 in Milwaukee, WI, Andrew Schoultz received his BFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA, where he became an integral figure in the development of the city’s mural programs. Public art projects and murals continue to be a central facet of the artist’s practice, allowing him to make work that is accessible outside the confines of the gallery space. For Full Circle, Schoultz will paint the gallery walls, giving him the chance to transform the traditional white cube into a more democratic space.

Schoultz’s work is held in numerous collections, most notably the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Honolulu Art Museum, HI; Fidelity Investments Corporate Contemporary Art Collection, Los Angeles, CA; The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA, Monterey Art Museum, CA; and Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA. Selected solo exhibitions include Andrew Schoultz: In Process: Every Movement Counts, UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Las Vegas, NV (2018); This Marvelous and Turbulent World: New Work and Installation by Andrew Schoultz, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN (2018); In Process: Andrew Schoultz, Monterey Art Museum, CA (2013); Images in Dialogue: Paul Klee and Andrew Schoultz, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA (2011).