Location: Wright/Harmon at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, Pullman, WA
Artist and Washington State University alumnus, Michael Schultheis finds dynamic synergies between the languages of mathematics and art. An economist and mathematician, with experience in both the academic and corporate worlds, Schultheis employs analytical formulae within his luminous paintings and sculpture. While the equations themselves offer a form of mathematical purity, His art bends this precision into imperfect visions, creating room for metaphor, storytelling, and beauty. Appearing like chalkboards filled progressively with mathematical notations and three-dimensional geometries, his canvases pay homage to Greek mathematicians Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid and Archimedes. Fusing the abstract and observed, the rational and the experiential, Schultheis has forged an interdisciplinary, even holistic, practice, connecting us all in its expression.
Raised on a rural family farm near the Snake River in southeast Washington State, Schultheis was awarded a B.A. in Honors Economics from WSU in 1990. His art has been exhibited in more than 60 solo exhibitions in the United States. It is included in public collections such as the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C., and U.S. Embassies in Greece and Switzerland. Schultheis has lectured widely on ‘Analytical Expressionism’ a term he uses to describe his practice at the intersection of mathematics, science, technology and the visual arts.
Funding provided by Samuel H. & Patricia W. Smith Arts Endowment Fund, John Mathew Friel Memorial Arts Lectureship, and Members of the Museum of Art.
