Statement

Julie Schumer paints with the directness and spontaneity of the best of expressionist painters. It is this directness, playfulness and even childlike quality that brings freshness to her style and work. Schumer is a natural colorist. The works dance in a glorious joy of pure reds, turquoises, cobalt blues, hot pinks, and golden yellows. Schumer constructs paintings in an intuitive manner. She first introduces color, then shapes and line, responding to their development. Constantly moving things around by sanding, scumbling, rearranging and adding, the painting begins to paint itself. The inherent rawness does not take away from the painting’s sensitivity and sophistication. Schumer has gone her unique way to create her own diverse bold and dynamic works, pushing the boundaries of contemporary abstraction.

The paintings in Schumer’s ongoing figurative series arise organically from the paper, canvas or board and appear through the subtle layers of paint that are applied and partially removed with a soft hand over a heavily textured surface. The texture is then scratched through strategically to reveal part of what is underneath. These paintings mix a feeling of the ancient, harkening back to cave paintings, with the contemporary and are an exploration of the archetype of the divine feminine. The paintings present as abstract shapes, lines and colors that suddenly comprise a recognizable figure or group of figures. They gradually appear out of the texture as though they have just arrived and are sentinels of the desert in which they were created.

Bio

Julie Schumer was born in Los Angeles, California in 1954. She attended UCLA, graduating magna cum laude in 1975 and went on to law school. She has been a practicing attorney for the past 29 years.

Schumer began painting at age 5 and continued through high school. Once in college her practical nature asserted itself and she became a lawyer instead of an artist. In the following years Schumer collected art, wishing all the while she had painted what she collected. Finally, in 2000, she reconnected with an old friend, artist James Koskinas. He sensed her long suppressed desire to create art and asked her why she wasn’t painting. Schumer answered she didn’t know. Koskinas brought her several pieces of wood, acrylic paint and a few brushes and said, “Paint.” Schumer hasn’t stopped painting since. She and Koskinas joined forces and moved to New Mexico in 2002. They paint companionably together in their Lamy studio, a modern day Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner.

Since reengaging with her art, Schumer has studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California and with artists Robert Burridge, Mira White and Edward Gilliam. Her paintings immediately resonated with viewers as other artists in workshops she attended wanted to buy them. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and most recently in Europe.

1954

Born, Los Angeles, California

Education

1975

B.A. English, magna cum laude, UCLA, Los Angeles, California

1978

J.D., Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles, California

Art Studies at Art Institute in Los Angeles, California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, with artists Robert Burridge, Mira White, Bob Winston and Ed Gilliam

Exhibitions

2007

Group Show, Marziart, Hamburg, Germany

Group Show, Four Starr Gallery, Stonington, Connecticut

Two-Person Show, 1228 Parkway Art Space, Santa Fe, NM

Group Show, Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Group Show, Four Starr Gallery, Stonington, Connecticut

2006

Two-person Show, New Editions Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky

Two-Person Show, Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Group Show, Lyman Allyn Musuem, New London, Connecticut

Group Show, Four Starr Gallery, Stonington, Connecticut

2005

Two-Person show, Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Group Show, Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Two-Person show, New Editions Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky

Emerging Artists Show, Scottsdale, Arizona

Group Show, Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2004

Two-Person Show, SKF Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Group Juried Show, Master Works of New Mexico Sixth Annual Spring Arts Show

2003

Group Juried Show, 22nd Annual Juried Exhibition, Pastel Society of the Southwest, Dallas, Texas

Awards

2003

Award of Merit, Pastel Society of the Southwest, 22nd Annual Juried Exhibition

Press

Coming soon