About

Anna Schölch was born in Sweden, raised in Germany, and educated in the United States. She makes almost life-size figurative pastel pieces that address long-distance friendships, loneliness, secrets, and young adulthood. Using photographs, she cuts apart and rearranges memories by placing people in distorted spaces and with strange objects to hide their secrets and create impossible parties.
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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. She lives and works in Allen, Texas.

Since moving to the United States from Germany when I was 14, I have been interested in long-distance friendships, social media connections, and the alienation and strangeness of a new home. 

With my almost life-size pastel pieces, I build magic realist figurative narratives that feature impossible parties with characters who share the same space because I remove the physical distance between them. The distorted familiar environments, odd arrangements, and lack of interactions are my observations and playful interpretations of young adults’ online existences where they are alone together.
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Using my archive of phone pictures of people and memories, I assemble them into implausible (but not impossible) scenarios that examine young adults’ mundane contemporary life.

CV

​Education

2021-
​2023

2015-
​2019​

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

​BFA Creative Writing with Illustration Minor, summa cum laude
New Hampshire Institute of Art

Exhibitions

Group Exhibition. The Spells That Bind Us, 2023. Roger Williams Gallery. Manchester, NH
Group Exhibition. Five Artists in Search of the Future, 2023. The Factory on Willow. Manchester, NH
Juried Exhibition. 125th Annual Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Open Exhibition, 2022. Salmagundi Club. New York, NY
Juried Exhibition. 49th Annual Exhibition: Enduring Brilliance, 2021. Pastel Society of America. New York, NY 
Juried Exhibition. 124th Annual Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Open Exhibition, 2021. Salmagundi Club. New York, NY
Juried Exhibition. 18th Biennial Exhibition, 2020. Degas Pastel Society. Covington, LA
Juried Exhibition. 28th National Exhibition, 2020. Pastel Society of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM
Juried Exhibition. Renaissance in Pastel, 2020. 27th National Exhibition. Connecticut Pastel Society. Weatogue, CT
Group Exhibition. Annual BFA Exhibition, 2019. French Hall Gallery. Manchester, NH
Solo Exhibition. Colors of Change, 2018. Eye Gallery, Manchester, NH
Juried Exhibition. Go Figure, 2018. French Gallery, Manchester. NH
Poetry Group Exhibition. Letters for Hope, 2017. Vault Gallery. Manchester, NH
Juried Exhibition. Opera Tosca, 2016. Palace Theater. Manchester, NH            
Juried Exhibition, 2015. LaBelle Winery. Amherst, NH
Juried Exhibition. 20 under 20, 2015. Blue House Too. Allen, TX

Awards

Kenneth Wellner Memorial Award. Pastel Society of America, 2021. New York, NY
Flora Giffuni Award. Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, 2022. 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.       

Publications

Change, 2020. Ayris Creative Arts Journal. Manchester, NH