Naomi Alessandra Schultz is an artist, curator, and researcher working in the expanded field of painting under a folkloristics framework. Her core studio practice, long rooted in visual storytelling via painting and drawing, has moved in recent years toward an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates sculptural textiles, found object assemblage, curation, and other modalities. Using pigment, graphite, paper, textiles, beads, found organic matter, and detritus of the built environment, Schultz develops scenes and material textures that engage collective stories—and their significance to current cultural and political phenomena—from a variety of traditions. In visually framing and reframing collective and individual mythic tales in her art, research, and curatorial projects, Schultz participates in the ongoing collaborative practice of culture-building, with an eye on both the tenacity and plasticity of reigning narratives of power.
Schultz obtained an MFA in Studio Art with a painting emphasis from SFAI in 2022, where she sat on the Board as the Graduate Student Trustee. She also holds a BA in Literature from UCSC. Her paintings and sculptural installations have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in the Bay Area and beyond, including at the de Young Museum, Modernism, Root Division, Marin MOCA, and College of Marin Fine Arts Gallery. In 2025, she co-curated a critically-lauded group exhibition entitled Lay of the Land at Root Division in San Francisco. In 2020, Schultz was the recipient of the Pirkle Jones Visual Artist Support Program Grant. Artist residencies include the Max Thelen Studio Residency at Art Works Downtown, Vermont Studio Center, and a fellowship from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts.