Chaotic Neutral
A Solo Exhibition by Taylor Schultek
25.03.23 - 29.04.23
The New York-based painter Taylor Schultek debuted in Gallery Poulsen back in 2016 and has since been an integral part of the gallery’s identity through his two solo exhibitions and participation in countless group shows in our Copenhagen space and presentations at art fairs all around the globe. Now, Schultek is ready to present his third solo exhibition in collaboration with Gallery Poulsen, featuring hyperrealist depictions of contemporary urban life. The exhibition is titled Chaotic Neutral and will open on Saturday, March 25th.
Through his urban landscapes, Schultek paints a mysterious world filled with subcultures, contemporary narratives, and virtual spaces that come together through complex and cumulative world-building. By referencing his daily environment of New York City, memories, and digital spaces, he creates a visual framework for representing our current place in time. Finding ways to play with the city’s dehumanizing concrete grid and liminal spaces has been a part of Schultek’s artistic practice since he started writing graffiti as a teenager, through which he became familiar with the nuanced environments and expressions of urban life. These experiences are now used as significant ingredients in Schultek’s figurative narratives, which center around everything from personal interests and the city’s many intimate spaces to technology’s rapid advancement and universal societal anxieties.
However, Schultek’s experiences have not only taken place in the physical world, he is also heavily inspired by his time spent in digital spaces and after countless hours in these virtual realities, he acknowledges that his visual vocabulary has strong and indisputable roots in the aesthetics of the digital world. Back alleys, underground tunnels, trains, rooftops, and virtual spaces are used to construct an autobiographical space that sits on the edge between fiction and reality. Though the combination of these two widely different worlds in Schultek’s paintings can often look dystopian in their depiction of urban sprawl, civil unrest, anti/authoritarian movements, unprecedented class inequality, and unstoppable technological advancement and dependency, that is not what he is aiming for. Instead, they are a means, for him and the viewer alike, of appreciating and engaging with the present moment around them from different perspectives, and to reflect on their relationship with these ever-changing surroundings.
About his most recent body of work, presented in Chaotic Neutral, Taylor Schultek explains;
“’Chaotic Neutral’ is a phrase from Dungeons and Dragons that describes a character who is unpredictable, difficult to pin down, and not bound by any particular ideology or allegiance. For Chaotic Neutral I wanted to create a space that embodied the same character so I could continue the world-building I’ve been doing with less restraint. A space in constant flux with unstable foundations allows for wide-ranging conceptual exploration, any subject matter, and a place to unite my seemingly disconnected interests and experiences. With this in mind, there’s no singular concept for this body of work, but rather a variety of ideas, locations, and subcultures interacting with one another in a semi-fictitious world. However, some common themes do run through the exhibition, such as dubious progress, power and control, human connection, and certainly order and chaos.”
- Taylor Schultek, 2023
The solo exhibition exemplifies Schultek’s multi-faceted visual framework by not just being inspired by a single aesthetic or specific parts of our urban landscapes. Instead, the expression of the exhibition as a whole creates a complete portrait of the metropolis as the epicenter of technological advancement, nostalgia, and intimate interpersonal relationships.
The solo exhibition presents seven oil paintings on panel and linen, sixteen framed miniature paintings, and a print in a limited edition of twenty of Taylor Schultek’s 2021 oil painting Hydra. The print retains the original painting’s augmented reality features and has hand-painted details, making every individual print unique.
Taylor Schultek’s third solo exhibition in Gallery Poulsen opens on Saturday, March 25th from 12.00 to 16.00. Schultek has taken the trip from New York City to Copenhagen and will be present at the opening reception. We’re looking forward to seeing you!
Chaotic Neutral
A Solo Exhibition by Taylor Schultek
25.03.23 – 29.04.23
Opening reception: Saturday, March 25th, 12.00 – 16.00
The exhibition presents a new series of oil paintings by New York-based artist Taylor Schultek
Please contact the gallery at [email protected] or tel.+ 45 33 33 93 96 for more info
Miniatures
Installation Images
