Split Ends

Adrian Schachter b. 1996 is an American artist. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts (NY) in 2019. Split Ends is his first career solo exhibition.

Adrian’s investigation is far detached from the trend of imposing one’s introspective truths upon the world. Formally, this is evident given the seemingly chaotic nature of the work, plastered with archetypal representations then riddled with implausible “cursed imagery”, all coalescing into an apocalyptic soup. The paintings shape their own language by cryptically concealing and highlighting elements such as pareidolia (identifying faces in inanimate objects) that trace a faint line between the human and non. Compositions that appear as mythical puzzles become legibly reminiscent of images composed by text-generated artificial intelligence, which share Adrian’s non-anthropocentric approach.

The ceramics and textile works allude to a psychic compensation for the affably misanthropic rhetoric seen in the painting. The ceramic work is instinctive and reverent of the abundance and design in the natural world. Adrian’s satiric undertone serves to redimension the subject matter and imbue the work with theatricality. In the disorienting compositions of the paintings there is absurd dream like spectacle, whilst sculptures present the dainty clumsiness of frolicking animal silhouettes.