The multidisciplinary practice of artist and director Julian Schnabel (b. 1951, Brooklyn, NY) extends beyond painting to include sculpture, film, architecture, and furniture. In 1978, he began to make Plate Paintings, imagic works with sculptural surfaces produced by layering shards of broken dishes with thick applications of auto body putty, dental plaster, and oil paint on wooden structures. His unorthodox, highly experimental approach to use of materials, gestures, and form and large scale and shaped paintings have blurred the distinction between abstraction and figuration. Throughout his practice, he sustained the use of objet trouvé and chance-based processes, transforming painting and opening the door for new generations of young painters today.

Phong H. Bui is an artist, writer, independent curator, and Co-Founder and Publisher/Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Rail, Rail Editions, River Rail and Rail Curatorial Projects.