Elspeth Schulze | Hold Water | 05.25.2024-06.29.2024

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.

Schulze’s artistic approach is as adaptive and varied as her materials. Organic and floral motifs—cut from brightly-colored paper, brass and aluminum, painted wood and ceramic—are carefully collaged together to create dynamic, wall-hung works. There’s a constant exchange between the artist’s hand and the machine precision of CNC routing, between unlike materials whose edges become difficult to discern. There’s a blurred boundary between ecological and architectural forms: framed by undulating lines and archways, palmetto fronds are mirrored in vivid reds and blues, soft pinks and verdant greens—a bayou sunset mirror-image. The works immerse viewers in an environment of sorts, one that feels carefully designed, but simultaneously variable and interconnected in a cyclic exchange.

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.

Elspeth Schulze (b. 1985) is a visual artist from Southern Louisiana, a place where land and water meet. She is currently based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 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.