American artist Dana Schutz has been hailed as one of the most important artists to emerge in the twenty-first century. Combining humour with disturbing images, Schutz creates vivid interrogations of the state of contemporary human existence. The intriguing contradictions created by Schutz are the result of a combination of fragmented form and vibrant colour. Deeply inspired by the unexpected use of colour and brushwork of German Expressionism, something that can be seen in her experimentation with paint and textures, specifically thought the way in which her brushstrokes and paint application switch between thick and thin, the physical presence of Schutz ’ brushstroke appear to carve figures and forms from the canvas. Schutz' figures and scenes are based on loose and fictive situations that exist only in the mind of the artist.

Through a combination of style and scenario Schutz, who continuously reinvents her artistic practice in each distinct series, is interested in ‘[embracing] the area between which the subject is composed and decomposing, formed and formless, inanimate and alive.’ While the artists themes and methods are constantly morphing, Schutz's works retains a distinct visual language of explosive energy and expression through her conspicuous blurring of figuration and abstraction that lives on the edge of tradition and innovation.

“I respond to what I think is happening in the world. The hypotheticals in the paintings can act as surrogates or narratives for phenomena that I feel are happening in culture.” -DANA SCHUTZ