Goldfinch is pleased to announce its participation in the 2025 edition of EXPO Chicago with a solo booth of works by Scott Wolniak in EXPO’s Exposure section, Booth 221.
 

Wolniak's abstract, biomorphic paintings can be seen as outward projections of interior spaces, manifesting the ways in which abstraction can convey a sense of rhythm, transformation, groundlessness, and internal movement. His lively, densely-layered canvases oscillate between their indexical, physical surfaces and illusory fields of depth, cultivating a non-objective visual language that embodies the energy of natural phenomena without explicitly representing it. Although abstract, the organic forms that emerge feel tied to the natural world, but importantly, in Wolniak's oeuvre the idea of “natural phenomena” also encompasses the realm of the mind and the nature of consciousness itself.

 

"I find imagery and meaning in my paintings as they are forming," Wolniak notes. "They are never predetermined. They can be hallucinatory." Humor, exploration and play, and especially intuition have long shaped Wolniak's approach to art making. So too does the Chicago artist’s longstanding interest in material exploration, which continues to provide Wolniak with strong directional paths. Throughout these paintings we see Wolniak experiment with additive elements such as pumice, paper pulp and saw dust in order to build up textures on surfaces, which produces occasional, flickering effects between surface and light and interacts in surprising ways with pigment.

 

Artist’s Biography:

 

Scott Wolniak has exhibited extensively throughout the US and abroad. His work has been written about in publications including ArtForum, Art in America and the Chicago Tribune, and is part of numerous permanent collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee. Wolniak received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2002. He is represented by Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago.

 

EXPO Chicago Hours Thursday, April 24 | 5:00pm - 8:00pm*
Friday, April 25 | 11:00am - 7:00pm Saturday, April 26 | 11:00am - 7:00pm Sunday, April 27 | 11:00am - 6:00pm
*Opening Night Ticket holders only

  • "I am concerned with building relationships and spaces that are contemplative and funny. These traits play out in different ways and at different speeds. I strive to create pictorial spaces that ask for and reward slow ways of looking...The accumulation of small marks, chance operations and textural fragments creates optical energy, and embodies an off-kilter sort of life-force that I think of as my style. Disparate sources such as natural phenomena, urban decay, new-age symbolism and studiocraft merge to illuminate everyday life within a cosmic context."

  • Spiral Motifs
  • "Spirals and concentric circles represent bi-directional movement— inward and outward. For me, it suggests many varieties and scales of movement, like a ripple, echo or pulse.  It symbolizes spiritual development and a connection to the universe.  It’s also just a familiar structure found throughout the natural world and embedded in the subconscious.  It works well in my paintings as a compositional device." -- Scott Wolniak

  • Plant Broadcasting System (PBS), 2024
    Scott Wolniak, PBS (Plant Broadcasting System, 2024 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Scott Wolniak, PBS (Plant Broadcasting System, 2024 (detail) (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Scott Wolniak, PBS (Plant Broadcasting System, 2024 (detail) (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Scott Wolniak, PBS (Plant Broadcasting System, 2024

  • Portal
    Scott Wolniak, Portal, 2025 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
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    (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Scott Wolniak, Portal, 2025

  • Booth Installation Views

  • Scott Wolniak Studio

  • How does nature and our ideas about the natural inform the paintings that you make?

    SW: The natural world has inspired me for as long as I can remember. It allows me to tap into a sense of wonder at any scale, from the vast, sublime landscape of the American West, to scraggly weeds poking through a city sidewalk.  Natural form and phenomena is complex, seemingly infinite and touches all the senses. Thinking about it allows me to imagine intricate systems that reach far behind my grasp. Visualizing natural environments and forms provides me with a meditative respite from life in Chicago, and my art reflects this.  

     

    Plants and trees also align with the way that I naturally draw, with meandering lines, intersections and blooms. Textures and transitory light of the landscape provide models for surface and color effects in my paintings.  While my work used to be directly “about” this subject matter, I have tried to embody its energy intuitively in recent years and have let go entirely of symbols and images.

  • Do you think of your work as “psychedelic” in nature?

    SW: Yes, but not in the illustrative or graphic way that Op Art or 60’s design is.  My work is more rustic and soft-focus.  On a perceptual level, psychedelia involves optical vibrations and a fluctuating visual field— qualities that I definitely strive for in my work. On a psychological level, the psychedelic can prompt trance-states and shifts between outer and inner space.  All of this interests me.

     

    The psychedelic can be esoteric and mystical, but it can also be political, resisting authoritarian forces by opening up the space of the mind.  

     

    Other words I use to describe my work are experimental, immersive, and off-kilter. They are not pictures, but rather atmospheric, tessellated spaces.

  • Tell us about your view of the grid as a foundation, a motif, a structure and/or any other way you think about it in terms of your paintings?

    The grid, and related structures like rows and columns, is an organizational principle that helps guide the improvisational drawing in my paintings.  Once a structure is in place, I can draw spontaneously within in.  The less I have to think, the more authentic my forms can be. It also connotes temporality and allows for rhythm to develop.  I like that grids are systems of measurement which do not occur in nature, so placing “free” shapes within the grid can generate tension between the natural and the human-made. I never measure my structures, but draw them quickly and imprecisely, so they too are loose, not rigid.  This is very important to me, as I want my work to always defy rigidity, which is the enemy of growth.

  • Painting Details
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  • How did you get into making art?

    SW: I started making art as a young child, as a way to entertain myself and build worlds. I was never interested in observational art, except when copying Shel Silverstein cartoons.  I experimented a lot with materials and techniques and would get frustrated when things didn’t work out.  My visualization was always way beyond my abilities.  In school I met some other kid-artists, who created art with joy, free of concern about correctness.  This inspired me greatly and, as a third grader, I remember consciously trying to get loose, work fast and make a mess.  

     

  • Scott Wolniak. Tintype photographer: Max Li.

  • About the Artist

    Scott Wolniak has exhibited extensively throughout the US. His work has been written about in publications including ArtForum, Art in America and the Chicago Tribune, and is part of numerous permanent collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee. Wolniak received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2002. He is represented by Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago.

  • Who are your favorite artists?

    The visual artists who have influenced my most recent work are Pierre Alechinsky, Agnes Martin, Ruth Asawa, Dona Nelson, Judy Ledgerwood, and anonymous Tantric paintings from Rajasthan along with  the musicians Laraaji, Natural Information Society, Steve Reich, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

  • Press & Gallery Exhibitions