About

Anna Schölch is a Swedish-born, German-raised artist who lives and works in Seattle, Washington. Her large format figurative pastels explore human connection through magical realist imagery. Drawing on personal snapshots for inspiration, she mixes distorted memories of people, animals, and objects to evoke familiar scenes and hidden secrets.

Schölch received her Master of Fine Art from the Institute of Art at New England College and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Illustration from New Hampshire Institute of Art. 

My large-scale pastel pieces are reassembled fabrications of everyday encounters. Visual fragments of my observations and conversations coalesce on paper where figures emerge from darkness glowing in ethereal light. Through digital collage, people, animals, places, and objects are removed from their original context and reconstructed into figurative compositions with new, often playful, meanings. The artworks are now visual poems – metaphorical representations that alter reality to see the customary in a new light.
White hotel bedding spread on grass symbolizes the short-lived and commodified experiences of online dating. Another work bestows around a figure an interior from my childhood in Germany, embodying the breathless golden sensation of a shared dance. 
The new configurations of real things, and the subsequent interplay between the real and unreal, frame the lighthearted juxtaposition of demonstrating and rejecting modern life that ties identity and authenticity to consumption and self-indulgence. Ordinary friends and acquaintances challenging this norm are portrayed representing collective strength and vulnerability to defy a culture intent on conformity. They deliberate a more connected and empathetic vision of society that promotes deeper engagement with the world. 

CV

​Education

MFA Visual Arts
Institute of Art and Design at New England College
2021-2023

BFA Creative Writing with Illustration Minor, summa cum laude
New Hampshire Institute of Art
2015-2019

Exhibitions

2024
The Other Art Fair - New Futures, Dallas Market Hall, Dallas, TX
ART214 Biennial, Bath House Cultural Center, Moody Performance Hall, and Oak Cliff Cultural Center, Dallas, TX

2023
The Spells That Bind Us, Roger Williams Gallery, Manchester, NH
Five Artists in Search of the Future, The Factory on Willow, Manchester, NH

2022
125th Annual Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Open Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY

2021
NEC Group Show, Brady Sullivan Tower, Manchester, NH
49th Annual Exhibition: Enduring Brilliance, Pastel Society of America, New York, NY 
124th Annual Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Open Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, New York, NY

2020
18th Biennial, Degas Pastel Society, Covington, LA
28th National Exhibition, Pastel Society of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Renaissance in Pastel, Connecticut Pastel Society, Weatogue, CT

2019
Annual BFA Exhibition, French Hall Gallery, Manchester, NH

2018
Solo Show: Colors of Change, Eye Gallery, Manchester, NH
Go Figure, French Gallery, Manchester, NH

2017
Letters for Hope, Vault Gallery, Manchester, NH

2016
Opera Tosca, Palace Theater, Manchester, NH            

2015
LaBelle Winery, Amherst, NH
20 under 20, Blue House Too, Allen, TX

Awards

New Futures, The Other Art Fair, 2024, Dallas, TX
Flora Giffuni Award, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, 2022, New York, NY
Kenneth Wellner Memorial Award, Pastel Society of America, 2021, New York, NY
2nd place, Go Figure Juried Competition, 2018, Manchester, NH
1st place, Jerry’s Artarama Inktober Contest, 2019, Providence, RI
May Blum Sidore Gruber Scholarship for academic achievement, 2015, Manchester, NH     

Publications

Change, 2020, Ayris Creative Arts Journal, Manchester, NH, https://www.ayris.org/change-issue/anna-scholch