Rooted in the aesthetics and philosophies of the New York and Northwest Schools as well as Asian art, Schatz maintains a diverse practice that explores the sensuality of gesture and line and the dynamism of pictorial and sculptural space. Notably, his work has been exhibited with that of Eva Hesse, Sol Lewitt, Robert Mangold, François Morellet, and Fred Sandback, while curator Jonathan Frederick Walz has also noted affinities with the work of Richard Tuttle and Alexander Calder. Museum director Thomas Sokolowski described his work as “lush skeins of finely measured and almost mathematically paced staves of pure feeling.” And the Paris-based poet Nina Zivancevic has written that his work “attests to the futility of our attempts to tame the wild and unpredictable.”
Over the past three decades Schatz has exhibited in Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany and the UK, as well as in the United States. Museum venues have included the Sheldon Museum of Art (Lincoln, NE), Sofia City Art Gallery (Sofia, Bulgaria), Landesmuseum Oberösterreich (Linz, Austria), and the Derby Museum (Derby, UK). Gallery and project venues have included Jason McCoy Gallery, TenBerke, The Phatory LLC, The Painting Center, George Billis Gallery and Nicholas Davies Gallery (all New York), Curious Matter and Art House (Jersey City), The Institute For American Art (Portland, ME), The Green Door Gallery and Pluto Gallery (Brooklyn), Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts (Toronto), Exile (Berlin), Galerie Pixi (Paris), and the South London Gallery (London). University and college venues have included New York University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Scranton, Cedar Crest College, Marymount Manhattan College, and the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow). His works are in the permanent collections of the Harvard Art Museums, Meadows Museum, Sheldon Museum, the US State Department, the University of Scranton, Pfizer, and The JBG Companies, as well as in private collections in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He has also donated artwork to benefit auctions for Visual AIDS, Empire State Pride Agenda and Act Up.
Schatz was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and as a young man he studied at the Baum School of Art there. He earned a bachelor of arts magna cum laude in history and philosophy at the University of Scranton, while also attending studio classes offered at the Everhart Museum in Scranton. He continued fine art studies at the Barnstone Studios in Allentown before moving to Boston, where he studied at Massachusetts College of Art and The Art Institute of Boston. From 1987 to 2022 he lived and worked in New York City. Currently he divides his time between New York and his hometown, and on occasion he’s been heard playing the Appalachian dulcimer.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
Deborah Berke Partners, New York
2017
The Phatory, New York
2016
The Phatory, New York
2015
The Institute For American Art, Portland, Maine
Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska
2007
University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania
The Phatory, New York
2006
Cressman Gallery, Cedar Crest College, Allentown, Pennsylvania
1999
Deborah Berke Partners, New York
Galerie Pixi, Paris
1998
Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York
1996
Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York
1994
Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York (Gallery’s inaugural exhibit)
1993
University Gallery, University of Scranton
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
Drawing Challenge XVIII. Jason McCoy Gallery, New York (online exhibition:
https://www.jasonmccoyinc.com/drawing-challenge#/challenge-xviii )
2020
Drawing Challenge IV. Jason McCoy Gallery, New York (online exhibition:
https://www.jasonmccoyinc.com/drawing-challenge#/challenge-iv )
2018Art & Friendship. The Green Door Gallery, Brooklyn
2017
A Dark Wood. Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton University, Atlantic City, NJ
2016
A Dark Wood. Art House, Jersey City, NJ (catalogue)
After: Vincent Como, Raymond Mingst, Robert Schatz. Curious Matter, Jersey City, NJ (Curated by Arthur Bruso)
2015
Sanctus. Curious Matter, Jersey City, NJ (catalogue)
2013
Thirteen. Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, Toronto
A Time In Arcadia. Curious Matter, Jersey City, NJ (catalogue)
Aspects. Marina Gallery, Cold Spring, NY
2011
Dividing Light Measuring Darkness. Curious Matter, Jersey City, NJ (catalogue)
9/11 Arts: A Decade Later. Commons Gallery, Steinhardt School of Art, New York University, New York
2010
Escape from New York. Paterson Arts Council, Paterson, NJ
2009
Summer Camp II: Like A Moth To The Flame. Exile, Berlin
2008
Unbreak My Heart. Pluto Gallery, Brooklyn
The Kramarsky Gift of Contemporary Drawings. Pollock Gallery, Southern Methodist University, Dallas (catalogue)
2006
Mixed Bag. The Phatory, New York
2005
Works On Paper. Deborah Davis Fine Art, Hudson, NY
2004
Art in the New U.S. Embassy. Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
2003
The Big Abstract Show. The Painting Center, New York
2002
Invitational Salon. New Arts Program, Kutztown, Pennsylvania
2000
On Abstraction: Francis, Hesse, Lewitt, Lozano, Mangold, Morellet, Schatz. Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York
1999
Die Kunst der Linie. Museum of Upper Austria, Linz (catalogue)
Additives on Paper. George Billis Gallery, New York
Five Years of Nicholas Davies Gallery. Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York
1998
WallPAPER. Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York
Gramercy Art Fair. Gramercy Park Hotel, New York (catalogue)
1997
Night of 1,000 Drawings. Artists Space, New York.
1996
Summer Group Show. Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York
New York Fin de Siècle. Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York
Permutations. MMC Gallery, Marymount Manhattan College, New York (catalogue)
1995
Summer Group Show. Nicholas Davies Gallery, New York
1992
10th International Cleveland Drawing Biennale (traveling). Derby Museum, Derby, England; South London Art Gallery, London; Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (catalogue)
1991
10th International Cleveland Drawing Biennale. Cleveland Gallery and Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough, UK
1990
Small Works. Amos Eno Gallery, New York
PUBLIC & CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
Meadows Museum
Pfizer IncSheldon Museum of Art
The JBG Companies
University of Scranton
U.S. Department of State
NOTABLE PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
David Hughes, Kansas City
Sarah-Anne & Werner H. Kramarsky, New York
Morton Meyerson, Dallas
John Robertshaw, New York
Calvin Tsao, New York
Lawrence Weschler, Katonah
CATALOGUES & PUBLICATIONS
Cleveland County Council. 10th International Drawing Biennale. Exh. cat (Middlesbrough, UK: Cleveland County Council, 1991). Essays by Brandon Taylor and Wolfgang Schmitz. p. 42, illus.
Curious Matter. A Dark Wood. Exh. cat. (Jersey City, NJ: Curious Matter, 2016). illus., pp. 42-43.
___________. Sanctus. Exh. cat. (Jersey City, NJ: Curious Matter, 2015). illus., pp. 45-46.
___________. A Time In Arcadia. Exh. cat. (Jersey City, NJ: Curious Matter, 2013). illus., pp. 54-55
___________. Dividing Light Measuring Darkness. Exh. cat. (Jersey City, NJ: Curious Matter, 2011). illus., pp. 51-52
Deborah Berke Partners. The Artist Program: Robert Schatz, String Theory. Exh. cat. (New York, NY: Deborah Berke Partners, 2018). illus.
Eshoo, Amy (ed.). 560 Broadway: A New York Drawing Collection At Work, 1991-2006. (New York: Fifth Floor Foundation, and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008). pp. 155 & 175
Gramercy International Art Fair, New York (1998). illus.
Jørgenson, Thomas. Fabulism. Lecture. (Copenhagen: Gallerie Christoffersen, 2005).
Marymount Manhattan College. Exhibitions, 1995-1996. Exh. cat. (New York: Marymount Manhattan College, 1996). Essays by Karen Harris
Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum. Die Kunst der Linie: Möglichkeiten des Graphischen. Exh. cat., Landesmuseum catalogue no. 145. (Linz, Austria: Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, 1999). Essays in German by: Wieland Schmeid, Antonia Hoerschelmann, Wolfgang Hilger, Peter Assmann, Amy Eshoo, Heinz Höfchen, Monika Oberchristl and Lothar Schultes. p. 327, illus.
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A New Line of Thinking: Recent Sculpture by Robert Schatz. (Lincoln, NE: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2015). illus.
Sokolowski, Thomas. Sprezzatura: The Art of Robert Schatz. Exhibition essay, Robert Schatz: New Work (New York: Nicholas Davies Gallery, 1996).
Southern Methodist University. Conversations 6: Werner H. Kramarsky and Christian Rattemeyer. (Dallas: Pollock Gallery Publications, Southern Methodist University, 2008).
The Art Institute of Boston. Academic Catalogue, 1986-1987. (Boston: The Art Institute of Boston, 1986). p. 36, illus.
U.S. Department of State. Fine Art Collection, Embassy of the United States, Sofia, Bulgaria. (Sofia: Embassy of the United States, 2004).
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Vovete. Providence, 2011. Album and CD artwork.
LECTURES & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
2018
String Theory, Deborah Berke Partners, New York
https://www.behance.net/gallery/70013457/The-Artist-Program-Robert-Schatz
2017
Artist talk with Anne Collins Goodyear, co-director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. The Phatory, New York
2015
Friday Live, Sheldon Museum of Art. NET Nebraska (NPR), Lincoln
2007
“The Lyric Grace of Gesture”. University of Scranton
2006
Between Abstraction and “Reality”. Cedar Crest College
Giotto and Cézanne. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1993
Reflections on Art and Visual Experience. University of Scranton
EDUCATION
1985-87
The Art Institute of Boston
1984
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston
1980-81
Barnstone Studios, Allentown
1976-80University of Scranton, BA magna cum laude, history and philosophy