Bryan Schnelle

Lives and works in Portland, OR

Artist statement

At this particular stage in my career I don’t have an overarching “Artist Statement”. My work is always evolving and moving forward, but much of it tends to explore religion and capitalism, and the various overlappings, symptoms, consequences and absurdities of these systems of belief/behavior. My current work could be viewed as a sort of identity-construction project aimed at figuring out who I am, or more specifically, who I am according to Instagram’s algorithm. I'm building this identity one painting at a time, selecting from a pool of product images which were selected by the app’s algorithm to display in my feed. Products that it believes say something about me or to me, potential impulse-buys based on my interests, beliefs, tastes, and values as Bryan Schnelle, social media user and consumer. Having a long standing interest in both advertising’s omnipresence in our culture and its ability to shape what we believe are our own original thoughts and ideas, I’m interested in the loss of an authentic “self” as we move through these online communities, and the “version” of ourselves we choose to present to the world.

Artwork