After graduating in 2000 with a BFA in experimental animation from CalArts, Los Angeles-based artist Allison Schulnik thought she would go on to work for the Cartoon Network. Instead, she wound up doing random animation gigs supplemented by income from menial jobs for a few years before deciding to show her book around. Nobody responded, until curator Hubert Schmalix from the now-shuttered Black Dragon Society gallery in L.A. called her in 2005 to show some paintings there. Curators took notice of the imaginative characters that made up her macabre fantasia, and she began to exhibit regularly.
But Schulnik never forgot her animation roots. In 2008, she produced a claymation short entitled “Hobo Clown,” featuring “Granny Diner” by Brooklyn-based indie rock band Grizzly Bear. The group showed their admiration for Schulnik’s work, hiring her to direct the haunting figures made of colorful gobs of clay in their 2009 music video “Ready, Able.” Last year, the cat-obsessed artist had an oil-thick solo exhibition at New York’s ZieherSmith Gallery that consisted of several feline paintings.
Schulnik’s personal style first caught our eye while walking through the VIP Vernissage at this year’s Armory Show. Her colorful flair for vintage clothing and funky accessories embodied an artistic Southern California cool aesthetic. For this edition of the Tastemaker, Schulnik — who is gearing up for an ocean-themed exhibition, “Salty Air,” which opens May 26 at Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles — takes us through her favorite red lipstick and cat-emblazoned platform shoes.
Click on the slide show to see Allison Schulnik’s Tastemaker picks.