EXHIBITION: January 15 – June 29, 2019
ABOUT | Artist and Washington State University alumnus, Michael Schultheis finds dynamic synergies in the languages of math and art. An economist and mathematician, with experience in the academic and corporate worlds, Schultheis employs analytical formulae within his luminous paintings. While the equations themselves offer a form of mathematical purity, Schultheis’ art subjugates this precision into imperfect visions, leaving room for metaphor, storytelling, and beauty. His canvases often have the appearance of chalkboards filled progressively with mathematical notations and three-dimensional geometries, that pay homage to Greek mathematicians Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid and Archimedes. Fusing the abstract and observed, the rational and the experiential, Schultheis has forged an interdisciplinary, even holistic, practice, connecting us all in its expression.
Raised on a rural family farm near the Snake river in southeast Washington State, Schultheis was awarded a B.A. in Honors Economics from WSU in 1990. His work has been exhibited in more than 60 solo exhibitions in the United States. It is included in public collections such as the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C., and U.S. Embassies in Greece and Switzerland. Schultheis has lectured widely on ‘Analytical Expressionism’ a term he uses to describe his practice at the intersection of mathematics, science, technology and the visual arts.
Funding has been provided by the Samuel H. & Patricia W. Smith Arts Endowment Fund, the John Mathews Friel Memorial Arts Lectureship, and the Members of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU.
LOCATION | The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU is located in the Crimson Cube (on Wilson Road across from Martin Stadium and the CUB) on the WSU Pullman campus. The hours of our six galleries are Tuesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. For more information please contact the museum at 509-335-1910.
