Douglas Schneider
Recent Paintings on view in Montecito June 5 - July 15
Douglas Schneider is an abstract realist painter specializing in oil painting, as well as highly integrated collage. His paintings blend crisp realism with dream-like abstraction, conjuring an enigmatic world. Schneider builds his paintings through a process of improvisation and excavation, guided by intuition and memory. He pulls images from historical photographs and documentary films as well as from his own life and his collections of everything from vintage toys to Life magazines to books on birds—an eclectic archive that contributes to the language of his paintings.
Biography
In Douglas Schneider’s captivating and enigmatic paintings, disparate worlds marble together and merge. Each canvas seems to contain an elusive narrative, a chain of cause and effect whose broken links lie embedded in the picture plane, tantalizing us with possible convergence. A man holds a garden hose as suburban homes drift overhead in a sky of abstract color; a triplicated girl in a historical dress blends with washes of pigment and with text that fades in and out of view. The “occasional use of illusionistic perspective against raw expressionistic brushwork,” Schneider notes, “gives the impression of being able to look deep into the canvas only to be thrust back to the surface.” Looking at his paintings, we feel our perspective constantly shift.
Schneider’s process is one of improvisation and excavation, combining elements of autobiography with images pulled from historical photographs, documentary films, and contemporary life. Like renowned post-Pop artists David Salle and Lari Pittman, Schneider fearlessly blends styles, periods, influences, and inspirations. History mingles with the present; abstraction meets realism; the unconscious mind bleeds into consciousness; exterior seeps into interior; background slips into foreground; and art invades everyday life. In developing a painting, Schneider seeks actively to incorporate these polarities, allowing, at the same time, his intuition to guide the form of the final artwork. The process is, in Schneider’s words,“simultaneously exciting and full of risks, [...] constantly operat[ing] with the unknown and bring[ing] to light the mysterious uncensored ingredients of the past and the present.”
Schneider’s work is included in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and has been exhibited nationally. Educated at the California College of Arts and at Art Center, Pasadena, Schneider lives and works in Los Angeles.
Education
1988–1991 California College of the Arts (formerly CCAC) BFA
1983–1985 The Art Center, Pasadena, CA
1981–1983 California State University at Long Beach
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022 Carpe Diem, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2021 Night Visions, Diehl Gallery, Jackson Hole
2019 Sublime, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Art Market San Francisco, Caldwell Snyder Gallery
2017 Art Market San Francisco, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, SF, CA
Dance, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 Empty Rooms, Caldwell Snyder Gallery San Francisco, CA
2013 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 MW Galleries, Aspen, CO
2006 Go Go Gallery, Miami, FL
2006 Meyer Milagros Gallery, Jackson, WY
2005 Kiddersmith Gallery, Boston, MA
2005 Larry Evans Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Pac III Silpakorn University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2004 Scott White Contemporary Art, Telluride, CO
2003 Larry Evans Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2002 Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2002 Scott White Gallery, La Jolla, CA
2001 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 SOMA Gallery, La Jolla, CA
1999 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, Sen Francisco, CA
1995 SFMoMA, Artists Salon Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
1995 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1995 Plaza Gallery, Bank of America World Headquarters, San Francisco, CA
1994 Evans-Gropper-Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1993 Larry Evans Fine Art San Francisco, CA
Selected Collections
SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA • The Fisher Collection, San Francisco, CA • The Anderson Collection, San Francisco, CA • Kent and Vicki Logan, Vail, CO • Jim and Patt Aitchison, Moraga, CA • David and Susan Coulter, New York, NY • Nancy Constlne, San Francisco, CA • Charles and Rebecca Daggs, Lafayette, CA • Dixon and Carol DolI, San Francisco, CA • Joe and Sandy Gandolfo, Palos Verdes Estates, CA
Press
PRESS
Selected Artworks
Education
1988–1991 California College of the Arts (formerly CCAC) BFA
1983–1985 The Art Center, Pasadena, CA
1981–1983 California State University at Long Beach
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022 Carpe Diem, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2021 Night Visions, Diehl Gallery, Jackson Hole
2019 Sublime, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Art Market San Francisco, Caldwell Snyder Gallery
2017 Art Market San Francisco, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, SF, CA
Dance, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 Empty Rooms, Caldwell Snyder Gallery San Francisco, CA
2013 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 MW Galleries, Aspen, CO
2006 Go Go Gallery, Miami, FL
2006 Meyer Milagros Gallery, Jackson, WY
2005 Kiddersmith Gallery, Boston, MA
2005 Larry Evans Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Pac III Silpakorn University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2004 Scott White Contemporary Art, Telluride, CO
2003 Larry Evans Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2002 Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2002 Scott White Gallery, La Jolla, CA
2001 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 SOMA Gallery, La Jolla, CA
1999 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, Sen Francisco, CA
1995 SFMoMA, Artists Salon Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
1995 Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1995 Plaza Gallery, Bank of America World Headquarters, San Francisco, CA
1994 Evans-Gropper-Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1993 Larry Evans Fine Art San Francisco, CA
Selected Collections
SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA • The Fisher Collection, San Francisco, CA • The Anderson Collection, San Francisco, CA • Kent and Vicki Logan, Vail, CO • Jim and Patt Aitchison, Moraga, CA • David and Susan Coulter, New York, NY • Nancy Constlne, San Francisco, CA • Charles and Rebecca Daggs, Lafayette, CA • Dixon and Carol DolI, San Francisco, CA • Joe and Sandy Gandolfo, Palos Verdes Estates, CA
In Douglas Schneider’s captivating and enigmatic paintings, disparate worlds marble together and merge. Each canvas seems to contain an elusive narrative, a chain of cause and effect whose broken links lie embedded in the picture plane, tantalizing us with possible convergence. A man holds a garden hose as suburban homes drift overhead in a sky of abstract color; a triplicated girl in a historical dress blends with washes of pigment and with text that fades in and out of view. The “occasional use of illusionistic perspective against raw expressionistic brushwork,” Schneider notes, “gives the impression of being able to look deep into the canvas only to be thrust back to the surface.” Looking at his paintings, we feel our perspective constantly shift.
Schneider’s process is one of improvisation and excavation, combining elements of autobiography with images pulled from historical photographs, documentary films, and contemporary life. Like renowned post-Pop artists David Salle and Lari Pittman, Schneider fearlessly blends styles, periods, influences, and inspirations. History mingles with the present; abstraction meets realism; the unconscious mind bleeds into consciousness; exterior seeps into interior; background slips into foreground; and art invades everyday life. In developing a painting, Schneider seeks actively to incorporate these polarities, allowing, at the same time, his intuition to guide the form of the final artwork. The process is, in Schneider’s words,“simultaneously exciting and full of risks, [...] constantly operat[ing] with the unknown and bring[ing] to light the mysterious uncensored ingredients of the past and the present.”
Schneider’s work is included in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and has been exhibited nationally. Educated at the California College of Arts and at Art Center, Pasadena, Schneider lives and works in Los Angeles.
Biography
Press
Recent Paintings on view in Montecito June 5 - July 15
Douglas Schneider is an abstract realist painter specializing in oil painting, as well as highly integrated collage. His paintings blend crisp realism with dream-like abstraction, conjuring an enigmatic world. Schneider builds his paintings through a process of improvisation and excavation, guided by intuition and memory. He pulls images from historical photographs and documentary films as well as from his own life and his collections of everything from vintage toys to Life magazines to books on birds—an eclectic archive that contributes to the language of his paintings.
Douglas Schneider
Schneider’s paintings are multifaceted, conceptually rich collages of techniques, ideas, and source material. In energetic color, he blends figuration with abstraction, art historical references with contemporary motifs, text with image, and improvisation with structure.
Recent Paintings on view in Montecito June 5 - July 15
Douglas Schneider is an abstract realist painter specializing in oil painting, as well as highly integrated collage. His paintings blend crisp realism with dream-like abstraction, conjuring an enigmatic world. Schneider builds his paintings through a process of improvisation and excavation, guided by intuition and memory. He pulls images from historical photographs and documentary films as well as from his own life and his collections of everything from vintage toys to Life magazines to books on birds—an eclectic archive that contributes to the language of his paintings.