Lana Scholtz
Albuquerque, NM
Summer 2026 * Art
Artist Statement
I seek autonomy through abstraction—freedom from prescribed narratives, fixed bodies, and singular readings. Driven by an existential attentiveness to bodily functions and sensory phenomena, painting is a perceptual field in which I contemplate the nuances of being embodied. The visual language of the paintings draws from textbook diagrams and schematic systems, which interest me for their ability to render complex biological and physical processes into universally informative cartoons. My process is slow and additive. I build matte surfaces through thin, diluted layers of color, allowing multiple compositional matrices to coexist within a unified field.
This method foregrounds chromatic interaction—new colors emerge where layers overlap—while giving form to the experience of coinciding realities. Biomorphic and symmetrical structures dissolve into immersive, spatial compositions to produce a first-person encounter rather than a detached view. The paintings unfold through duration rather than immediate comprehension. I am increasingly conscious of the ways the work pushes against forms of repression rooted in my upbringing. Exuberant, awkward, and childlike color becomes a strategy for resisting those inherited constraints.
The artist in the gallery. Photo by Brad Trone
Works
vaulted ceiling exposed beams, 2023. 30 x 24 inches, oil on linen
Tinnitus, 2025. 48 x 37 inches, oil on canvas
The everlasting necklace, 2025. 48 x 37 inches, oil on linen
stone milk, 2026. 37 x 28.5 inches, oil on linen
Sport Utility Volcano, 2024. 48 x 37 inches, oil on linen
Precipitate, 2026. 40 x 30 inches, oil on linen
Pleasure Garden, 2026. 40 x 30 inches, oil on linen
unclouded, 2025. 62 x 48 inches, oil on linen
Heavenly Nitrile, 2023. 62 x 48 inches, oil on linen
A splinter fills the entire galaxy, 2026. 10 x 8 inches, oil on linen
The Divine Emptiness, 2026. 10 x 8 inches, oil on linen
To the infinite center, 2026. 10 x 8 inches, oil on linen
Installation Views
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Centrifuge, 2026, smoke the moon, Santa Fe, NM, photo credit: Brad Trone
Catastrophic yearning, 2025, oil on linen, 48x37 inches, photo credit: Brad Trone
About the Artist
Lana Scholtz (b. 1995, South Africa) is an abstract painter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her paintings translate close observation into rhythmic fields of pattern, color, and shifting spatial relationships that invite sustained looking. Scholtz received her MFA from the University of New Mexico in 2025, and her debut solo exhibition, Centrifuge, was presented at smoke the moon in Santa Fe in 2026.
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