Laguna Art Museum continues its contemporary art program ex•pose with Los Angeles artist Allison Schulnik.

Schulnik’s paintings, sculptures, and clay animations show the same relish for visceral and surreal forms. Bright colors emerge through an overall dark palette in an exploration of fantastic figures and characters on the fringes of society. Hobos, clowns, and motley creatures intertwine into the environment and each other, forming moments of abstraction then a semblance of representation again.

Influenced by kindred artists of the past such as the macabre Belgian painter James Ensor, Schulnik pursues a vein of imagery that is haunting, mournful, and beautiful all at once. This is her first museum exhibition, and it includes all new paintings and sculpture from 2012-2013, and all three of her animated films: Hobo Clown (2008), Forest (2009), and Mound (2011).