Exhibitions
ELSPETH SCHULZE: HOLD WATER
Tinney Contemporary / 237 Rep. John Lewis Way, N. May 25 - June 29th
Elspeth Schulze
Tinney Contemporary is proud to present Hold Water, a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Elspeth Schulze. The exhibition will run from May 25, 2025 through June 29, 2024. The opening reception will be held Saturday, June 1, from 2-8 PM.
Hold Water traces the link between Schulze’s practice and a particular setting: the Southern Louisiana marshes of her upbringing, a place where the boundaries between land and water are often indistinguishable and constantly in flux. The works in the exhibition might be understood as vessels—forms to hold and preserve the past, a sense of place, of home—yet, they seem to do so by embodying porousness and fluidity, a continual interplay between different elements.
Schulze’s approach is as adaptive and varied as her materials. Organic and floral motifs—cut from brightly-colored paper, painted wood and ceramic, dyed linen—are housed in uniquely-shaped, CNC cut frames. There’s a constant exchange between the artist’s hand and digital technology, between unlike materials that become difficult to discern, a blurred boundary between ecological and architectural forms. Palmetto fronds are mirrored in red and blue, a bayou sunset mirror-image; furniture, textiles and wall-hung sculpture immerse viewers in an environment of sorts—one that feels carefully designed (as a vessel), but simultaneously variable and interconnected in a cyclic exchange.
Elspeth Schulze (b. 1985) is a visual artist from Southern Louisiana, a place where land and water meet. Recent work explores the idea of a porous place, a passage between one thing and another. Schulze makes site specific installations and sculptural wall works that marry ornament with architecture, pairing geometric structure with organic, often plant-based forms. Her practice combines ceramic, wood and textile processes and pairs digital fabrication with traditional methods of making. Schulze holds an MFA in ceramics from the University of Colorado Boulder, a degree in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Technology New York, and a BA in literature and visual art from Loyola University, New Orleans. Recent exhibition venues include Oklahoma Contemporary in Oklahoma City, OK, Wasserman Projects in Detroit, MI, Spring Break Art Fairs in NY and LA, and Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston, MA. She is currently an alumni-in-residence at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
