ANDREW SCHOULTZ
THERE IS A WORLD OUTSIDE OF YOUR WINDOWMARCH 27 – APRIL 29, 2026
GALERIE DROSTE PARIS
72 RUE DES ARCHIVE
75003 PARIS
Speaking of windows, the poet Charles Baudelaire once said, “In this dark or luminous hole, life lives, life dreams, life suffers.” This 19th-century prose resonates deeply with the title of this exhibition, chosen by the American artist Andrew Schoultz: There Is a World Outside of Your Window. As early as the 19th century, the issue of photography haunted debates over the loss of humanist values; today, our artistic relationship to the world is being redefined by artificial intelligence, sometimes perceived as a boon and sometimes considered a threat. With this exhibition, Schoultz takes a stand and makes it clear, without mincing words, that he invites us to see the world beyond a form of falsely comforting virtuality.
For several months now, strange posters with a starkly minimalist design have been appearing in the Paris metro, advertising a round, connected device that promises never to let us down. Is the machine finally starting to take humans for fools? How sad it is never to encounter a “no”—those missed appointments, those refusals that gain substance, those coincidences that trigger others and enrich our existence. There are undoubtedly people who dream of a path paved entirely with “yes,” free of constraints—a one-way, nonstop journey to a realm shaped by their desires. Without battles, without struggles, without negotiations, access would seem obvious and taken for granted. In Greek, this has long been called hubris, and in most cases, hubris—that sister of excess—always ends badly. Let us consider the fate of those tormented in ancient legends, those who wanted everything at once and who, even today, have their livers eaten by eagles or must roll a stone to the summit, only to watch it fall back down inevitably with every ascent.
If we wish to extend the metaphor of references to ancient Greece, one detail deserves our attention: the owl, often present in Schoultz’s works as a figure of wisdom—Athenian and patient—seems to watch over the entirety of his thinking. There is, in fact, something both ancient and apocalyptic in the artist’s manner of painting and drawing, which formulates signals—like waves, like a linear and repetitive gesture—in the style of Orthodox sacred icons. His work beautifully blends a genuine, popular desire to be understood with profound and sometimes cryptic references that speak through symbols. He captures the eye through bold color, gesture, and message.
The work Last Hand of Man (It’s Not Too Late), as frightening as it is hypnotic, appeals directly to our human conscience. More alarmed than judgmental, the painter’s vision confronts us with certain contradictions and invites us to question our relationship with the animal that we are—one that, unlike the imitative machine, feels, suffers, and dies. These ideas can be understood not with sadness, but with the clear joy of feeling alive. In this warning, in this advice that resembles a cry of hope—in the spirit of Jacques Brel’s song “Il nous faut regarder”—the artist ultimately offers a subtle ode to free, unconditional contemplation.
—Laure Saffroy-Lepesqueur
Born in 1975, Andrew Schoultz lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He received his BFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA. His work is included in important collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Berkeley Art Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition marks the fourth solo exhibition with Galerie Droste.
