AboutAnna 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.
Schölch received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Illustration. She lives and works in Allen, Texas. |
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I moved to the United States from Germany around the time when smartphones and social media became a prevalent means of communication. With my work I am interested in portraying the resulted dichotomy of community and isolation, being able to witness my long-distance friends’ and siblings’ lives unfold online and yet feeling ever so lonely.
In my almost life-size figurative pastel pieces, young adults exist in the same space but do not interact with each other; they are alone together in the opposite way that people are on the internet, where they can talk but do not share a physical closeness. However, the physical company in my pieces is not an idealized and polished representation; rather, it is an obvious fabrication. I distort the figures, objects, and settings and collage them from cut apart and rearranged photographs. It is a splicing together of lives and memories, much like on an Instagram feed, imitated also by my most common composition, papers that are slightly more vertical than comfortable, like a phone screen.
My work features a mix of some surrealist and magical realist elements. While it is not a dream-like subconsciousness like in surrealism, I use textural abstractions, like layered zigzag lines for carpets, and create illogical and impossible scenes to distract from the secrets I know about people. I present more so the everyday like in magical realism; however, I do not always integrate the extraordinary parts as seamlessly and convincingly, so they sometimes resemble the symbols and strangeness of surrealism.
My recent body of work, “Before the Sky Falls on Our Head,” is not supposed to be accepted and believed by its characters or the viewer. It is a way for me to make myself laugh and bring people together for impossible parties, forming artificial connections between my friends and siblings to capture the zeitgeist of our time and uncertain future.
In my almost life-size figurative pastel pieces, young adults exist in the same space but do not interact with each other; they are alone together in the opposite way that people are on the internet, where they can talk but do not share a physical closeness. However, the physical company in my pieces is not an idealized and polished representation; rather, it is an obvious fabrication. I distort the figures, objects, and settings and collage them from cut apart and rearranged photographs. It is a splicing together of lives and memories, much like on an Instagram feed, imitated also by my most common composition, papers that are slightly more vertical than comfortable, like a phone screen.
My work features a mix of some surrealist and magical realist elements. While it is not a dream-like subconsciousness like in surrealism, I use textural abstractions, like layered zigzag lines for carpets, and create illogical and impossible scenes to distract from the secrets I know about people. I present more so the everyday like in magical realism; however, I do not always integrate the extraordinary parts as seamlessly and convincingly, so they sometimes resemble the symbols and strangeness of surrealism.
My recent body of work, “Before the Sky Falls on Our Head,” is not supposed to be accepted and believed by its characters or the viewer. It is a way for me to make myself laugh and bring people together for impossible parties, forming artificial connections between my friends and siblings to capture the zeitgeist of our time and uncertain future.
CV
Education
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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
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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
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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
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Change, 2020. Ayris Creative Arts Journal. Manchester, NH
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