Information


b. 1971
Lives and Works in Chicago

EDUCATION

MFA, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2002
BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1995
Ox Bow School of Art, 1992, 1993

TEACHING

Department of Visual Art, University of Chicago, 2006-present
Ox Bow School of Art, Summer 2015
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2002 – 2007

SELECTED SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2016
To Break is to Build, devening projects + editions, Chicago, IL

2015
Scott Wolniak for Trunk Show, Trunk Show Mobile Exhibition Space, Chicago, IL
Landscape Record, Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee, WI

2014
Remote Surface, (with Jeremy Coleman Smith), Hap Gallery, Portland, OR
Fields, Valerie Carberry Gallery, Chicago

2013
Surface (New Drawings), Judith Racht Gallery, Harbert, MI

2012
Square vs Rectangle, John Riepenhoff Experience at Pepin Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
World of Matter, Lump Gallery, Raleigh, NC 
Scott Wolniak
, (solo show), Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago
Flash Art, Chambers@916, Portland, OR

2011
The Ratio of Effort to Effect (performance), The Green Gallery East, Milwaukee, WI

2010
Scott Wolniak: You Can Lose Your Balance (solo show), 65GRAND, Chicago, IL
Scott Wolniak: Afterimage (solo show), Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL
Scott Wolniak: Patterning (solo show), 2010, Chambers @ 916, Portland, OR

2009
10 Years of Videos (solo screening), Roots and Culture, Chicago, IL
Scott Wolniak: Ungray: Color, Light and Other Balms (solo show), Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL

2008
Scott Wolniak: New Work (solo show), Proof Gallery, Boston, MA

2007
Tamed and Wild (solo show), Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago, IL

2006
Drawing with Outer Space, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL The Buddy Cycles, Vol. 1 (Derek Fansler & Scott Wolniak, collaborative project), Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL

2005
Scott Wolniak (solo show), 12×12 New Artists/New Work, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Video and Sculpture (solo show), Tony Wight/ Bodybuilder and Sportsman Gallery Project Space, Chicago, IL

2003
New Ghosts (solo show), mn Gallery, Chicago, IL
Time and Space (solo show), Gahlberg Gallery at McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS

2014
Ducks, organized by Ryan Travis Christian, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
If They Mated, curated by Zak Harvey, Honey Hole, Chicago
Rocket Run: Abstraction from Chicago, organized by Alexander Herzog, Elder Gallery, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, NE
I’m Jealous of Your Failure, curated by Trew Schriefer, University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery, Springfield, IL
Ritual Magic, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Material Matters, Fine Arts Gallery, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago
Iffy Conditions, Garden Art Gallery, Chicago

2013
A Study in Midwestern Appropriation (curated by Michelle Grabner), Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
L’Houloupe (curated by David Rhoads), Greenlease Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Video Data Bank – New Acquisitions, 59th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany
Mere Mystery (curated by Jesse McLean and Eric Fleischauer), Headroom Screening Series at Public Space One, Iowa City, IA
The Monument (Frames per Second #5), Plug Projects, Kansas City, MO
Plant Life (curated by Geoffrey Todd Smith), Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL

2012
Sea Change, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL
Frames Per Second, Plug Projects, Kansas City, MO
Livid Feel (curated by Erik Wenzel), Alte Saline Hallein, Salzburg, Austria
Chicago Underground Film Festival, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
I Surrender, Devening Projects and Editions, Chicago, IL

2011
Contemporary Drawings from the Irving Stenn Jr. Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Eyeworks Animation Festival, curated by Alexander Stewart and Lilli Carré, DePaul CDM Theater, Chicago, IL
Stop and Go Screenings and Exhibitions, Kunst en Complex, Rotterdam; Webster University, Leiden; Fluctuating Images/ General Public, Berlin;
Interventionsraum, Struttgart
Open Daybook, LACE, Los Angeles, CA
West, Wester, Westest,FFDG, San Francisco, CA
Trashed,Seton Hall University, Jersey City, NJ

2010
Lost and Found, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Ecology Screening, curated by Jesse McLean and Eric Fleischauer, Green Lantern, Chicago
IAAFBJHMJNMOMRSATSW, Fountain, Brooklyn, NY
Psychotrope, Institute of Visual Art (Inova), Milwaukee, WI
Around, curated by William Staples, Ebersmoore, Chicago, IL
Stop and Go Video Screening, curated by Sarah Klein, International Traveling Program of Experimental Animation

2009
Foto Week DC, curated by Geoffery Aldridge, Arts Festival and Public Video Installation, Washington, DC
Abhorrence of the Void, Unit B Gallery, San Antonio, TX

2008
The Leaf and the Page, curated by Doug Stapleton, Illinois State Museum, Chicago, IL (traveling exhibition)
Recent Acquisitions, curated by Julie Rodrigues-Widholm, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Capricious and Mercurial Systems, curated by Joan Giroux and Whitney Huber-Lazar, A+D Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Replicants, Virgil de Voldére Gallery, New York, NY

2007
Direct, Tony Wight/Bodybuilder and Sportsman Gallery, Chicago, IL
Bilingual: Art at the Intersection of Video and Painting, curated by Tracy Taylor, Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago
Drawing Room, Judith Racht Gallery, Harbert MI
Experimental Melodies, curated by LiveBox, Directors Lounge at Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin

2006
Video Lounge, curated by Michael Rush, Art Basel Miami Beach, courtesy of Perpetual Art Machine
Scott Fife, Robyn O’Neil, David Schutter, Scott Wolniak, Valerie Carberry Gallery, Chicago, IL
PAM (Peripheral Art Machine), Scope Art Fair, New York, NY

2005
RED WHITE BLUE, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, NY
Cinemascope, curated by Lee Wells, Art Scope, London
The 4- Color Pen Show, curated by Heather Hubbs and Elysia Borowy, General Store (Milwaukee, WI)/Locust Projects (Miami, FL)

2004
Drawing: Seven Curatorial Responses, Catherine E. Nash Gallery, University of MN, Minneapolis, MN
Pierogi a Go-Go (Brooklyn Gravity Racers), Pierogi, Brooklyn, NY
Spacemakers, (courtesy of The Suburban), Lothringer Dreizen, Munich, Germany
Uncovered: Recent Acquisitions from the Artists’ Books Collection (courtesy of 8.5 x 11), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

2003
Paper Chase, Muller-DeChiara Gallery, Berlin, Germany
#20 , curated by Reed Anderson, Champion Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
Knockabout, curated by Mark Orange, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, NY
Summer Jam, Peres Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Cheap, curated by Lauren Ross and Elizabeth Ferguson Madden, White Columns, New York, NY

2002
Fountain of Youth, curated by Law Office, Locust Projects, Miami, FL/ Stray Show, Chicago, IL
Sculpture in Chicago Now, Part II, curated by Adam Brooks and Corey Pastiglioni, Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Video Data Bank, Chicago, IL
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Sonke Magnus Müller, Berlin, Germany
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
Zach Feuer, New York, NY
Peter Norton, Santa Monica, CA
Irving Stenn Jr., Chicago, IL
Peter R. Stern, New York, NY
Valerie Carberry, Chicago, IL

SELECTED REVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

2016
Review: Scott Wolniak and John Philip Abbott/Devening Projects + Editions, NewCity Magazine, by Kelly Reeves

2015
Art: The Tender Brutality of Scott Wolniak, Urban Milwaukee, by Rose Balistreri

2014
Spotlight Feature, Scott Wolniak, New American Paintings – No. 113
Material Matters, Northeastern Illinois University, Exhibition Catalog Essay by Steve Ruiz
Review: Scott Wolniak / Valerie Carberry Gallery by Abraham Ritchie, NewCity Magazine
Layers of Art by Sigalit Zetouni, Chicago Life Magazine
Fields, Exhibition Catalog Essay by Claudine Isé

2013
Midwestern Appropriation at Hyde Park Art Center is Appropriating What, Specifically? by Claudine Isé, Chicago Tribune
New American Paintings – No. 107/ Juror’s Pick by Eric Crosby
Interview with Scott Wolniak, Steven Cox, Hunted Projects

2012
Scott Wolniak at Chambers@916, Portland, OR by Richard Speer, Visual Art Source

2011
New American Paintings, #95 Midwest Edition (Feature)
Contemporary Drawings from the Irving Stenn Jr. Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago (Catalogue)

2010
Scott Wolniak at 65GRAND, Michelle Grabner, Art Forum (Review)
Around, Ebersmoore, Lauren Weinberg, Time Out Chicago (Review)
Scott Wolniak at Chambers@916, Portland, OR, Richard Speer, Visual Art Source (Review)
Scott Wolniak Selects some “Suitable Video” for Western Exhibitions, Lauren Weinberg, Time Out Chicago (Interview)

2009
Scott Wolniak at Chicago Cultural Center, Susan Snodgrass, Art in America (Review)
Ungray: Color, Light and Other Balms, Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune (Review)
Scott Wolniak at Chicago Cultural Center, Tim Ridlen, New City (Review)

2007
Bilingual: Art at the Intersection of Video and Painting (exhibition catalog)

2006
Scott Fife, Robyn O’Neil, David Schutter, and Scott Wolniak, Valerie Carberry, Ruth Lopez, Reviews, Art News
Video: A New Way of Working, Victor Cassidy, Chicago Artists’ News

2005
Unwanted Things, Fred Camper, Chicago Reader
A Weed Grows in Market Square: Exhibit Debuts at Downtown Park, Jennifer Mathieu, Houston Chronicle

2004
Derek Fansler and Scott Wolniak (Dogmatic Gallery), Michelle Grabner, artUS

2003
Critics’ Picks New York, Martha Schwendener, ArtForum.com
“Knockabout” at Spencer Brownstowne, Steven Stern, Time Out New York
Galleries, Recommended, Kim Levin, The Village Voice
Scott Wolniak at mn, Ginger Wolf, Bridge Online
An Everyday Optic: Scott Wolniak’s Time and Space, Jonathan Miller (exhibition catalog)

HONORS, AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2016
Vermont Studio Center Residency

2014
Janel M. Mueller Award for Excellence in Pedagogy, University of Chicago

2013
Juror’s Pick, New American Paintings

2000-2002
MFA Scholarship, University of Illinois at Chicago