ALLISON SCHULNIK / MATRIX 168

February 6 – May 4, 2014

Download the MATRIX 168 Exhibition Brochure.

MATRIX 168 featured work by artist Allison Schulnik, centering on the museum premiere of Schulnik’s Eager (2013)—a stop-motion, clay animation video—shown with the artist’s Mound (2011). Both videos exemplify the thrilling effects of old-fashioned animation techniques.

Schulnik trained under legendary animator Jules Engel, a contributor to the Disney classics Fantasia (1940) and Bambi (1942), also a founding director of the Experimental Animation Program at California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts).

While Schulnik’s clay animation videos featuring lonely marginalized characters and obscure musical pieces have earned her wide acclaim, she also works in painting and sculpture. Both mediums directly connect to the videos in subject matter, color palette, and heavy impasto effects. The tactile nature of Schulnik’s compositions creates a motion-like sensibility that affords the paintings unparalleled depth and energy. A fantastical installation of related painting and sculpture expanded her MATRIX project.

Schulnik was born in San Diego in 1978 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She received a BFA in Experimental Animation from Cal Arts. In addition to art making, she has a background in dance, and is also a musician. Her works reside in notable collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art; and the Musée des beaux-arts, Montréal.