While back in Kansas City for the holiday I visited The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. The Nerman is on the campus of Johnson County Community College. I've always enjoyed the modern art sculptures scattered across the campus, in their collection and now at this new contemporary, minimalist building. I had never been in the museum which opened in October 2007 and was impressed, even surprised by the collection. I could have easily been in a modern gallery in a major city like LA, NY or SF, not on community college campus in suburban Kansas. My friend Whitney works there and I was fortunate to get a private tour through the museum when it was closed on a Monday. I really liked the installation work of Anne Lindberg's Raume Yellow, and the Allison Schulnik, Skipping Skeleton's. Whitney told me the Nerman had another piece of Schulnik's in storage and she took me to the storage space see the piece wrapped in a plastic and wood 9 ft shipping container. I love seeing art out of the usual public viewing context, be it in the artist's studio or in the storage space before it goes up into the ideal viewing space. Schulnik's paintings looks like cake icing and makes the brush strokes in Van Gogh's work look callow in comparison. I imagine her work takes a long time to dry and is heavy to transport and hang. The works are haunting and beautiful in their flow and narration. Her use of nuanced color heightens the dimensionality of her paint application. I love her claymation video for one of my favorite bands, Grizzly Bear but her paintings are by far my favorite.
Mound by Allison Schulnik from garaco taco on Vimeo.
FOR MORE FROM SCHULNIK VISIT HER WEBSITE allisonschulnik.com OR AT markmooregallery.com.
