Pieter Schoolwerth’s Supporting Actor at Petzel Gallery features works of painting, sculpture, and film, combined in complex installations. The space is organized as a loop, providing two ways of approach. Choosing the left path brings you to a cubicle that represents a smaller version of the gallery. Inside are smaller-sized paintings, electrical equipment next to a small dummy, and a red tunnel closed at the other end. On the outside of the cubicle are works of plastic composite reliefs that form abstract silhouettes of fluid figures and landscapes. Rounding the corner, the space opens to large canvases coated in thick smears of paint that blend hues and tones into space-age computer-generated realities. Onepainting, Behind the World, appears to depict a psychedelic disco scene taking place on a spiraled green and black floor. Tiny dancers populate the foreground while giants boogie in the background. On the opposite wall is a life-sized model of a bathroom flipped on its side. The bathroom’s mirror opens back up to the red tunnel which leads back to the miniature version of the gallery. Finally, the gallery wraps around to a large black box room where a mind-bending CGI-animated film plays several scenes accompanied by a disorienting soundtrack by musical artist Aaron Dilloway. In one sequence, an animated version of Dilloway is seen standing in a bizarre club with liquid alien creatures; think Star Wars cantina but stranger.
Schoolwerth’s work brings attention to the sensitive boundary that divides painting from technology, as well as the boundary between reality and the unreal. The visual intensity of Schoolwerth’s paintings, achieved in giant swirls of smeared pigment on large canvases, stretches the viewer’s image-processing power to its very limit. The result, while certainly overstimulating, is undeniably spectacular and refreshing.
I really appreciate your attention to detail in your review! You write very descriptively. I find it interesting that you started in the left direction, since I was drawn to the right initially. I am wondering what is the narrative that unfolds in your eyes by going to the left first? Do you think that would change how the work is perceived? You mention briefly there being a boundary between technology/painting and reality/the unreal. What is that boundary exactly? And do you feel as though the artist was successful in illustrating this boundary? You picked a hard show to wrap up in just a few hundred words, so props to you.
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