Laguna Art Museum continued its contemporary art program ex•pose with Los Angeles artist Allison Schulnik.

Schulnik’s paintings, sculptures, and clay animations show the same relish for visceral and surreal forms. Bright colors emerge through an overall dark palette in an exploration of fantastic figures and characters on the fringes of society. Hobos, clowns, and motley creatures intertwine into the environment and each other, forming moments of abstraction then a semblance of representation again.

Influenced by kindred artists of the past such as the macabre Belgian painter James Ensor, Schulnik pursues a vein of imagery that is haunting, mournful, and beautiful all at once. This is her first museum exhibition, and it includes all three of her animated films: Hobo Clown (2008), Forest (2009), and Mound (2011).

Schulnik was born in San Diego in 1978 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She received a BFA in experimental animation from the California Institute of the Arts. In addition to art making, she has a background in dance, and is also a musician. Her works can be seen in a number of notable collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art; the Chaney Family Collection; the Musée des beaux-arts, Montreal; and the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine.

about ex·pose
ex·pose is a contemporary art program curated by Grace Kook-Anderson, curator of contemporary art at Laguna Art Museum. Focusing on one emerging or mid-career artist at a time, the program encourages the development of new projects and an immersive involvement with the museum’s Young Artists Society Gallery program. ex·pose aims to present a diverse range of artists working in all mediums.