Allison Schulnik


Allison Schulnik is an American painter, sculptor and animated filmmaker. She is known for her heavily textured, impasto oil paintings and her animated short videos.

Early life and education

Schulnik was born in San Diego in 1978. In 2000, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts.

Art practice

A multidisciplinary artist, Schulnik is known both for her paintings and her animated video and film works.
As a painter, her signature style is to use thick layers of oil paint to create heavily textured works that are almost sculptural in terms of their depth. These paintings often begin by creating preliminary drawings, followed by the creation of the painting, where she relies on spontaneity and gesture to create texture with her hands. Thematically, her paintings often depict phantom-like creatures and boneless animals that appear to be melting off of the canvas.
Schulnik's animated works begin with the creation of small sculptures of figures and objects made from clay, paint and other materials. She has also used traditional hand-drawn animation techniques in some works.
Her freestanding sculptural works, usually made of ceramic, are often exhibited alongside her paintings and animated works.
Schulnik's collaborations with musicians include the 2009 stop-motion/claymation video Forest for the song Ready, Able by Grizzly Bear. In 2015, Deafheaven selected a painting by Schulnik to use for the cover art of their album New Bermuda.

Personal life

Schulnik is married to fellow artist Eric Yahnker. They live and work in Sky Valley, California and have one daughter.

Solo exhibitions