Photo Credit: Jasmine Park
Bio
Originally from Upstate New York, Molly Schulman received her B.A. in Studio Art from Bard College. She then drove across the country landing in Los Angeles where she continues to live and work. Molly co-founded MAIDEN LA, a network of happenings that aims to dissolve hierarchies in the art world with its inclusive decentralized format. She has exhibited at Brand Library & Art Center, Durden & Ray, UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, B-LA Connect, Other Places Art Fair, Every Woman Biennial, PØST, has been featured on LA-based art podcasts What’s My Thesis and Art Traffic, and was selected as SciArt Ambassador with Supercollider. Most recently, Molly had solo exhibitions at Gallery Pado in Los Angeles and Cerritos College Art Gallery and participated in the IKEA Residency.
Statement
Through multiple media—including sculpture and installation, painting, video, and performance—my work explores various art world and societal constructs in an effort to understand the metaphysics of being an artist. I am interested in bridging the gap between the art world and the rest of the world by confronting the institutions that dictate and perpetuate such constructs. I do this by addressing topics like artist as celebrity, commodification of art, the art market, exclusivity, accessibility, and hierarchical systems.
Reproduction plays a recurring role in my work, where I will often take from my own notes, reference other artist’s work or even reproduce elements from my own studio walls. Using familiar materials and simple construction, my sculpture and installations often have an interactive element to engage the viewer and make the work more accessible. I incorporate tongue-in-cheek humor and visual puns while provoking a thoughtful and playful sense of revolution, blurring the lines between art and commodity, appropriation and authenticity, form and function, the real and surreal.