Arts & Entertainment
Art Gallery Features Work of Famous LHS Alum
Libertyville High School exhibits the paintings of Ryan Shultz, a graduate and established artist.
’s fledgling art gallery, in its first year, is welcoming back one of its own — Ryan Shultz.
Shultz, a 2001 alum, and a keynote speaker at the North Suburban Conference Art Festival hosted by LHS, is now exhibiting his paintings at the school.
“Ryan stood out,” said Ray Gossell, Shultz's former teacher, who still teaches art at the school. “His painting skills were the best I’ve ever seen in a high school student. He had such a passion for art. That’s all he wanted to do.”
Find out what's happening in Libertyvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Shultz continued his art education at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and Northwestern University where he received his Masters in Fine Art. He also studied abroad in Florence. According to Gossell, Shultz paints in the Old Master style, but depicts modern life.
“We were basically just giving him the materials and the feedback,” Gossell said. “He knew what he wanted to do and he did it.”
Find out what's happening in Libertyvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Shultz’s work has received national recognition; he has shown his works in more than 60 juried art shows and exhibited in galleries nationwide. He also appeared as a contestant on Bravo's Work of Art:The Next Great Artist.
Now painting and teaching in downtown Chicago, the 28-year-old says he's happy to show students at the festival that it’s possible to attain a career in art.
“I thoroughly enjoy public speaking and anything I can do to encourage young people to pursue the arts,” Shultz said. “When they’re in high school, in particular, I like to stress that you can go to art school and if you work really hard, you can be successful.”
Shultz says he is lucky to have started his art education at LHS especially because the school's art program has remained well equipped even as fine arts spending has often been cut in other school districts.
“We were lucky because we had great facilities, great supplies, and teachers that were encouraging and gave great critiques,” Shultz said. “I had some pretty harsh critiques. They knew how to push me. It was good.”
Shultz describes his experience on reality television as “awful,” explaining that his microphone was always recording, allowing no privacy. In addition, time and challenge restraints left little room for creativity. He does admit, however, that many good things came out of it.
“I got new students, I sold artwork, I can’t walk down the street in a major city without people stopping me,” Shultz said. “It proved to be pretty good for my career actually."
For the future, Shultz has a very exact idea of what he’d like to do.
“I see Los Angeles as being this modern day Valhalla, like the home of the gods,” Shultz said. “It’s a contemporary place where all of these people live that are eccentric and weird. And everyone cares about them. It’s interesting. They’re these people with this immense power. I’d love to paint them.”
Six weeks ago, Shultz met with Clint Eastwood's wife to discuss a portrait she has commissioned him to do.
Shultz's work will remain in the LHS art gallery for an undetermined period of time. The art gallery is located across the hall from the auditorium.
More information about Ryan Shultz can be found at www.RyanShultz.com.