Stories told in Calculus - Opening Reception

Winston Wächter Fine Art Seattle is proud to announce Bouquets, Luminaries, Menageries: Stories told in Calculus, our sixth solo exhibition with painter Michael Schultheis. Please join us for our opening reception on Thursday, November 3, 6 – 8 pm. The artist will be in attendance.

At Microsoft, Michael Schultheis used mathematics to create software, which is now part of our everyday life. Since leaving, Schultheis has channeled his passion for mathematics into visual, conceptual storytelling. Each painting is layer upon layer of formulas and their corresponding geometric shapes. For those able to read those formulas, canvases are transformed into three-dimensional space, and for others they are simply beautiful, intriguing abstractions.

What makes Schultheis’ work relatable to any viewer is how he chooses to use these formulas and shapes. Human behavior, relationships, situational information is all translated mathematically. The speed at which we live our lives, character traits of individuals, our locations, are explained as velocity, eccentricity and radius. By sharing these stories via mathematics, Schultheis removes all judgment of behavior, and simply presents us with what is. This timeless and universal language becomes a way of connecting us all.

His work can be found in the collections of the Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; United States Embassy, Athens, Greece & Bern, Switzerland; and the Mathematical Association of America, Washington DC among many others. Exhibitions of his works have been held at the Howard Hughes Institute in Chevy Chase, MD and at the National Academies of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

Photo credit Deb Achak, 2016