The Playdate Painting

Monica Shulman is a New York-based artist whose brand of gestural abstraction is a form of story-telling. Rooted in the traditions of abstract expressionism, Monica’s world is best described as colorful and rhythmic and her paintings reflect an evolving universe where communication is less concrete. Creating sculptural surfaces through her heavily layered impasto technique, Monica’s paintings exhibit a compulsive energy and the dynamic tension between reckless abandon and careful restraint. She engages the medium itself, specifically oil paint and oil pastel, as a participant in both her abstract and figurative works. Emerging from the fluidity of her visual language and diverse mark-making, her process-oriented work explores themes of the human condition, identity, and self-reflection. A first generation American of Cuban and Argentinian descent, who left her career as an attorney to focus on her art practice full-time, Monica lives and works in the lower Hudson Valley with her husband and their children. Monica has been featured in various publications including The Washington Post, Popular Photography, Create Magazine, Art Seen and Westchester Magazine. In 2019, the Director of PULSE Art Fair in Miami invited Monica to participate in the “Next Generation” exhibit to celebrate the fair’s 15th anniversary. She was inducted into the National Association of Women Artists in 2022. Her work has been shown at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, the National Association of Women Artists, Frieze Los Angeles, Art Market Hamptons, PULSE Art Fair, The National Arts Club, and the New York Mercantile Exchange, among others.