Pieter Schoolwerth (b. 1970, St. Louis, MO)
American artist Pieter Schoolwerth works in a multitude of mediums including painting sculpture, installation, and video. His paintings capture the invisible flows of abstraction that structure contemporary experience, turning them into motifs for an elaborate new kind of figurative painting. In his work, the stuff of paint itself reappears as a supplement only at the end of a complex, multi-media effort to produce a figurative picture depicting the ‘once removed’ space of the virtual.
Since graduating from the California Institute of the Arts in 1994, Schoolwerth has exhibited nationally and internationally with notable solo shows at Thread Waxing Space, New York; Greene Naftali, New York; Grand Palais, Paris; Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York; What Pipeline, Detroit; Capitain Petzel, Berlin; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin and Petzel, New York. His work has been included in group exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Sadie Coles, London among others. His monograph Model as Painting was published by Sequence Press/MIT in 2019, and he presented his mid-career survey show “No Body Get a Head 1991-2020” at the Kunstverein Hannover in 2021, curated by Kathleen Rahn. From 2003–2013 Schoolwerth ran Wierd Records and the Wierd Party in the Lower East Side of NYC, releasing music by 46 bands and producing over 500 live music, DJ, and performance art events.
Schoolwerth’s work is in the permanent collections of the Pinault Collection, Venice and Paris; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Kistefos Museum and Sculpture Park, Jevnaker; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig; Denver Art Museum, Denver; and the Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger, among others.
His second solo exhibition with Petzel Gallery will open in Fall 2024 with an accompanying monograph. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
“I’ve always been interested in the ways in which the ever-changing, and often invisible, forces of abstraction in the world affect the task of representing the human body. I’ve come to use the photographed shadow to represent the performance of your digital body when we’re not together.”
Pieter Schoolwerth
Wierd Records
1970 Born in St Louis, Missouri
1994 Graduates Cal Arts and moves to New York City
First NYC show at Thread Waxing Space, Soho
1996 “Altered States of America” show, New York
"Subway" project begins
2003 Founds Wierd Records and the Wierd Party LES, New York
Released music by 46 bands and hosted over 500 live events
2008 Co-authors “Wierd Manifesto: The Analogue Synthesizer as a Folk Instrument of Humanist Resistance”
“Portraits of Paintings” project begins, a major turning point where Western art history is used as raw material
2014 “Your Vacuum Sucks” film
“My Vacuum Sucks” show at SKE, New Delhi
2015 “Model as Painting” project begins
Installation view, “No Body Get a Head” show at Kunstverein Hannover featuring work from 1991–2020
2016 "Fine Young Cannibals" group show at Petzel, New York
2017 “Model as Painting” show at Capitain Petzel, Berlin
2018 “New York by Night” group show at HdM Gallery, Beijing
2019 “Model As Painting” book published “Virtual Relief” show at KTZ, Berlin
2020 “Shifted Sims” solo show at Petzel, New York
2021 “No Body Get a Head” show at Kunstverein Hannover featuring work from 1991–2020
“Lucy & Aaron” at Hanson Records Oberlin, Ohio
2022 “Rigged” at Petzel, New York and KTZ, Berlin
2023 Galeria Sequeria, Seoul (Forthcoming)
2024 Petzel Gallery, New York (Forthcoming)
Pieter Schoolwerth
Fucking Bananas (Rigged #27)
2022
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
90 x 97 inches
228.6 x 246.4 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Sharon is Karen (Rigged #23)
2022
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
80 x 90 inches
203.2 x 228.6 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Unicorn Beach Platform (Rigged #15)
2021
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
79 x 72 inches
200.7 x 182.9 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Today’s Outside Critique (Rigged #13)
2021
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
66 x 57.5 inches
167.6 x 146.1 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Testicular Momentum (Rigged #7)
2021
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
72 x 86 inches
182.9 x 218.4 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Diamond Residence (Rigged #3)
2021
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
67.5 x 64.25 inches
171.5 x 163.2 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Shifted Sims #6 (Tropical Romance Island Community Event)
2020
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
70 x 58.5 inches
177.8 x 148.6 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Shifted Sims #1 (Get Together)
2020
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
54 x 93 inches
137.2 x 236.2 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Shifted Sims #14 (Luxury Party Stuff)
2020
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
80 x 112 inches
203.2 x 284.5 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Behavioral Surplus Capture #2
2019
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
73 x 58 inches
185.4 x 147.3 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Remote Tribalism
2019
Oil, acrylic, inkjet on canvas
83 x 72 inches
210.8 x 182.9 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Fake Followers
2018
Oil, acrylic, and inkjet print on canvas
88 x 90 inches
223.5 x 228.6 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth, Taylor Shields, Alexander Carver, Avery Singer
Virtual Model for “Bubble Revision”
2018
HD Video, color
4 minutes 10 seconds
Edition of 5, 1 AP
Pieter Schoolwerth
The Casting Agent
2017
HD, color
16:9, 6 mins. 35 secs.
Edition of 6, 1 AP
Pieter Schoolwerth
Model for "The Casting Agent"
2017
Garment and latex on wood, AP1 of "The Casting Agent" video
53 x 242 x 48 inches
134.6 x 614.7 x 121.9 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Model for “Underground”
2017
Enamel on wood
49 x 59 x 7 1/4 inches
124.5 x 149.9 x 18.4 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Leave/Remain #3
2016
Oil, acrylic, and inkjet print on canvas
58 x 78 inches
147.3 x 198.1 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Model for "Green Model of a Couple Arguing about Their Abysmal Financial Situation"
2016
Enamel on wood
46 3/4 x 62 1/4 x 6 5/8 inches
118.7 x 158.1 x 16.8 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
No Body Gets a Head #3
2015
Oil, acrylic, and inkjet print on canvas
84 x 110 inches
213.4 x 279.4 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Take Out #6
2015
Oil, acrylic, and inkjet on canvas
41 x 43 inches
104.1 x 109.2 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Untitled
2015
Oil, acrylic, and inkjet print on canvas
90 x 115 inches
228.6 x 292.1 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth and Alexandra Lerman
Your Vacuum Sucks
2015
HD, color
16:9, 39 mins.
Edition of 6, 1 AP
Pieter Schoolwerth
Shadows Past 8
2013
Oil, inkjet print and oil pastel on canvas
83 x 58 inches
210.8 x 147.3 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
After Troy 4 (Vouet)
2012
Oil, inkjet print and oil pastel on canvas
72 1/2 x 54 inches
184.2 x 137.2 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Portrait of "The Fortune Teller", Schematic (after Manfredi)
2011
Oil on linen
48 x 63 inches
121.9 x 160 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
Session
2005
Oil on linen
93 x 87 inches
236.2 x 221 cm
Pieter Schoolwerth
The Appointments Become Her
2003
Oil on canvas
85 x 104 inches
215.9 x 264.2 cm
Installation view
No Body Get a Head, 1991–2020
Kunstverein Hannover
2021
Installation view
No Body Get a Head, 1991–2020
Kunstverein Hannover
2021
Installation view
Rigged
Petzel
2022
Installation view
Rigged
Petzel
2022
Installation view
Shifted Sims
Petzel
2020
Installation view
Shifted Sims
Petzel
2020
Installation view
Model as Painting
Capitain Petzel
2017
Installation view
Model as Painting
Capitain Petzel
2017
