Allison Schulnik: Animating Canvas

Night Horses, Oil on canvas, 2005, Gift of Mark Moore

Allison Schulnik’s paintings are a space where abstraction, movement, and tension come together, reflecting her later work in animation. Her work is multi-layered and as she says herself, it is really about activating the surface of the canvas. In an interview with Lauren Licata of Mark Moore Gallery, Schulnik describes her process:

“I rarely have one specific message that I’m trying to portray to my audience. I approach my paintings in various ways – Sometimes, I work from a study or collage, with a specific idea of what the finished work will look like, while other paintings are made from simply starting to paint.”

Her work, then, is a combination between working analytically and intuitively, between planned and serendipitous. This becomes evident when viewing her works, including Night Horses, a piece in our very own collection. The movement of paint and of subject activates and animates the canvas in a way which is distinctly Schulnik’s own.

Allison Schulnik was born in 1978 in San Diego, CA and earned her BFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). She has had numerous exhibitions across the country and around the world and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. More of Schulnik’s work, including her animated pieces, can be seen on her website and her artist page at Mark Moore gallery. 
 

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