Chris Schultz

Christian (Chris) Schultz (b.1994) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing) from The University of Central Oklahoma in 2018 and his Master of Fine Arts (Drawing) from The University of Arkansas in 2021. Schultz’s work covers a variety of media including works on paper, video and animation and object making. Themes explored within the work include time, genealogy, play and ephemerality through a practice of world building with a current focus on the exploration of virtual worlds and his childhood backyard. Schultz has been featured in a number of shows both nationally and internationally. Interests outside of the studio include birding and gaming. Christian is a current faculty member of The University of Arkansas School of Art. Recent bodies of work explore the liminal space between virtual worlds and self. The imagery used within the work describes an environment. Scenes of overgrown grass, stars falling from the sky reflected in pools of water. Mounds of unknown sizes and matter. A larger, more nebulous environment is interconnected between the works. This space is ambiguous and constantly changing. Colors are spawned from the prismatic worlds of video games and cartoons. The ideas of iteration, world building and play fuel a lot of the work. Thinking about how these can manifest within a series of drawings and moments where they reflect within a person. Working in a hybrid method of physical and digital tools allows for that kind of fast iteration and exploration. These lines between the physical and the digital realms can be blurred or even exploited. At some level the blending between these takes place within us. This recent collection of drawings and images stand as an inquiry into what that world looks like.