Allison Schulnik

Allison Schulnik (born 1978) is an American painter, sculptor and animated filmmaker. She is known for her heavily textured, impasto oil paintings and her animated short videos. Schulnik is married to fellow artist Eric Yahnker. They live and work in Sky Valley, California.

Early life and education
Schulnik was born in San Diego in 1978. In 2000, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts.

Art practice
A multidisciplinary artist, Schulnik is known both for her paintings and her animated video and film works.

As a painter, her signature style is to use thick layers of oil paint to create heavily textured works that are almost sculptural in terms of their depth. These paintings often begin by creating preliminary drawings, followed by the creation of the painting, where she relies on spontaneity and gesture to create texture with her hands. Thematically, her paintings often depict phantom-like creatures and boneless animals that appear to be melting off of the canvas.

Schulnik's animated works begin with the creation of small sculptures of figures and objects made from clay, paint and other materials. She has also used traditional hand-drawn animation techniques in some works.

Her freestanding sculptural works, usually made of ceramic, are often exhibited alongside her paintings and animated works.

Schulnik's collaborations with musicians include the 2009 stop-motion/claymation video Forest for the song Ready, Able by Grizzly Bear. In 2015, Deafheaven selected a painting by Schulnik to use for the cover art of their album New Bermuda.

Solo exhibitions

 * 2020 Hatch, PPOW, New York
 * 2017 Nest, Galeria Jaier Lopez & Fer Frances, Madrid, Spain
 * 2017 Eager, Flint Institute of the Arts, Flint, Michigan
 * 2016 Hoof II, ZieherSmith, New York
 * 2016 Hoof, Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City, California
 * 2014 Allison Schulnik/Martix 168, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
 * 2014 Eager, ZieherSmith, New York
 * 2013 EX.POSE: Allison Schulnik, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, California
 * 2012 Salty Air, Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
 * 2012 Mound, Oklahoma City Art Museum, OK
 * 2012 Mound, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, MO
 * 2011 Mound, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
 * 2011 Performance, Division Gallery, Montreal, QC, Canada
 * 2010 Home for Hobo Too, Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago
 * 2010 Home for Hobo, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 * 2009 Allison Schulnik, Unosunove, Rome, IT
 * 2009 - Go West, Mark Moore Gallery, New York, NY
 * 2008 No Luck Too, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, NY
 * 2007 No Luck, Rokeby Gallery, London, UK
 * 2007 Fools, Rejects, and Sanctuaries, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Filmography and videography

 * 2019: Moth - Hand-painted gouache on paper, animated video, 3:15
 * 2014: Eager - Stop-motion/claymation video, 8:30
 * 2011: Mound - Stop-motion/claymation video, 4:33
 * 2009: Forest - stop-motion/claymation video, 4:30, for the song Ready, Able by Grizzly Bear, from the album Veckatimest.
 * 2008: Hobo Clown - stop-motion/claymation video, 5:00
 * 2000: Pistachio - 16mm Stop-motion animated film, 7:00
 * 1999: Vedma - 16mm Stop-motion animated film, 5:00
 * 1997: The Slaying - 16mm Stop-motion/live action animated film, 1:00

Awards

 * 2014 Ottawa International Animation Festival - Best Abstract/Experimental Animation Film for Eager
 * 2014 South by Southwest Film Festival - Special Jury Recognition Award for Eager
 * 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival - Feature Film Audience Award Runner-Up for Forest

Collections

 * Albright-Knox Art Gallery
 * Chapman University
 * Crocker Art Museum
 * Farnsworth Art Museum
 * Laguna Art Museum
 * Los Angeles County Museum of Art
 * Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art
 * Museum of Fine Arts Houston
 * Museé des Beaux Arts de Montréal
 * Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
 * Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
 * Santa Barbara Museum of Art
 * US Department of State
 * Wadsworth Atheneum