Kristine Schomaker
@kristineschomaker
kristineschomaker@gmail.com
660 South Avenue 21 #3
LA CA 90031
STATEMENT
“Art is restoration: The idea is to repair the damages that are inflicted in life, to make something that is fragmented – which is what fear and anxiety do to a person – into something whole.” ~Louise Bourgeois
My work is personal, intense, emotional, violent and lonely. I am a conceptual autobiographer performing my life through art. I de(con)struct previous work and personal items to create stories of transformation and self-awareness. I spent months in the early pandemic creating meditative drawings. They are cut up. I saved drop clothes from my previous painting encounters. They are cut up. I shredded my ‘skinny’ photos. I drew attention to ideas of beauty in young girls by painting their beauty salons and kitchens. They are cut up. I brought my virtual avatar to the real world by painting mannequins in their likeness. They are cut up. I have paintings from over 25 years ago that were stretched and on wood. They are cut up. All these fragmented pieces come together to ‘paint’ a wholistic picture of my life that has been lost. The repetitive practice of drawing, painting and cutting is performance, meditation. My work is a ritual, an altar to loss, grief, death and ultimately reconstruction. The resulting work becomes an installation where I take up the space that I have been denying myself for so long.
BIO
KRISTINE SCHOMAKER is a conceptual artist, mentor, community organizer, curator, advocate, cheerleader, facilitator and social activator. Through social practice and engagement, Kristine is interested in using art and community, education and expression to cultivate change.Exhibiting her work since the late 1990’s, Kristine has been featured in numerous exhibitions including most recently group shows at Bermudez Projects, another year in L.A., Golden West College, Coastline Art Gallery, Keystone Art Space, LAVA Projects, San Diego Art Institute, Launch LA, Surrogate Projects, 18th Street Art Center, Durden and Ray, Blue Roof Studios, Monte Vista Projects, PØST, Brainworks Gallery, BLAM and the Torrance Art Museum. She has also had these solo exhibitions: “Perceive Me” traveling exhibition at California State University Los Angeles, Studio Channel Islands in Camarillo, Museum of art and History in Lancaster and Coastline Art Gallery in Newport Beach, “Plus” at Ark Gallery in Altadena and Moorpark Community College, “Mirror, Mirror!” Gallery H Phantom Galleries LA, Hawthorne, California, “A Comfortable Skin,” Kerckhoff Hall Art Gallery UCLA, Los Angeles, California and “Ce n’est pas une peinture,” TRACTIONARTS, Los Angeles, California