Allison Schulnik's paintings, sculptures and animation are among our favorites so it's great to shout out her debut solo exhibition with P.P.O.W this Thursday, February 20th. Her films have been included in internationally renowned festivals and museums, including most recently MOTH for January's Times Square Arts' Midnight Moment, the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition. With Hatch, the San Diego-born artist returns to painting in celebration of two big moments in her personal life–-giving birth to her daughter Tupelo and moving to the remote mountain region of Sky Valley, California.

Schulnik showcases an honest and intimate visual diary of a new, exciting life, as well as reflections and meditations on motherhood. Through these works, she explores the physical and psychological experience against the backdrop of Sky Valley's desert, a place that resonates with life, death, and reflection. Using oil paint as clay, she sculpts snapshots of the flora and fauna around her new home that create a living, changing landscape.

Additionally, the artist includes a small series of three paintings presenting each of “Tupelo’s sides,” as described by Schulnik. Starting with Tupelo #1, the baby lays on her back “fiercely confident, mesmerizing, and otherworldly.” Following Tupelo's growth, a second image is painted months later, revealing her physical development and dynamic, distinctive spirit. These works can be "viewed literally, psychologically, and spiritually all at the same time." Connecting points between her own experiences of motherhood and the related motifs in the surrounding wildlife, Schulnik offers a meticulous look at the complexity of the cycle of life, captured in beautifully textured, impastoed, expressive oil paintings. Sasha Bogojev

Photos courtesy of Allison Schulnik and P·P·O·W, New York