Andrew Schoultz

Andrew Schoultz has a pictorial approach to social and political commentary. Having presented his work in various contexts from museums to galleries to public murals, Schoultz is known for his densely layered artworks exploring patterns in history related to war, natural disasters, and globalization. Inspired by underground comics, graffiti, German map-making, the archaic illustrations of the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1492, and Persian Miniatures to name a few, the artist’s work is profoundly chaotic both visually and thematically.

Schoultz’s work lacks overt references to singular historical events, but rather explores a collective unrest, pulling from disparate global affairs and histories such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2016 U.S Election, the rise of China as an economic giant, natural disasters, the pangs of the recession in the United States, to the fall of the Persian and Roman Empires. This broad range of historical references in the artist’s work speaks not only of Schoultz’s conglomerated themes and influences, but also points to the artist’s interest in the cyclical nature of history, as illustrated through his juxtaposition of primitive and modern symbolism. The artist articulates:

“Chaos and destruction are reoccurring themes in my work because I feel like these things are happening all around us constantly. Whether it is the multiple wars being fought all over the world, the natural disasters that seem to happen on a regular basis, the man-made environmental disasters that are becoming more and more prevalent, to the economic crisis that has been crushing this country’s poor and middle class for years. I feel like you really cannot talk about one of these things without talking about all of them, so it becomes a monster of a subject.”

Born in 1975 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Andrew Schoultz currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.