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until 11.03. | #1106ARTatBerlin | Daniel Marzona shows from 14th January 2017 the exhibition format „Wall Works – 8 Weeks, 4 Exhibitions“ and now with Florian Schmidt the fourth part.
In the final part of the exhibition series Wall Works – 8 Weeks, 4 Exhibitions, Daniel Marzona is showing wall-related works by Florian Schmidt, in which the artist explores the relationship among space, material, and color. The exhibition will focus on paintings from the series Proximity, all with the same dimensions, which Schmidt has produced from a stretcher frame, cardboard, vinyl, acrylic paint, and lacquer.
Cardboard forms have been mounted on the frames, which are the reference point, as in all his works. In the composition, he takes his cue from already present materials; parts and production remnants from earlier works are used as the basis for new works. His cyclical working method thereby underscores the production process. His pictures are not “completed”, but should rather be viewed as snapshots from the work process; sometimes, Schmidt reworks the picture, influencing and manipulating the composition by applying paint. The presentation of serial groups of pictures underscores his concept by means of comparison: through repetition and variations, Schmidt repeatedly explores possibilities for placing his works in new contexts and relationships.
This work process stands both substantively and formally at the center of Schmidt’s artistic practice. It becomes visible here in the intervals between the pieces of cardboard, which produce contours. These interstices, some of which Schmidt has also painted, appear as lines whose graphic effect is an important compositional component, on the one hand, and create a spatial dynamic in the picture, on the other. The components seem like tectonic plates and play with the interaction between two- and three-dimensionality, which is characteristic of Schmidt’s works. Schmidt’s use of color enhances this spatial perception. Depending on the intensity with which the artist shapes the monochrome colored surfaces and on how he employs them and juxtaposes them, the individual components approach each other, almost fusing, or harmonize, or repel each other, so that a delicate, but heterogeneously tension-laden structure results. The title of the series, Proximity (closeness, neighborhood, surroundings), also points to this interplay and encounter.
Florian Schmidt’s works seem inconspicuous at first glance. But if the viewer opens himself to experiencing their process of becoming, they prove to be experimental explorations of medial, spatial, and formal questions and offer impressive possibilities of seeing: the interaction of surface and spatial depth and the harmony of colors and forms that lead us to reflect on the limits and definitions of drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture.
Florian Schmidt (born 1980 in Raabs/Thaya, Austria) lives and works in Berlin. After graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1999–2006 ) and his studies at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (2002–2003) Schmidt had international solo and group shows including Correspondance, Kunsthalle Krems, Factory – solo show/cat.; Art at the Core, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York; Faces and Facets: Recent Acquisitions at Princeton University Art Museum; (S)ITUATIONS, L’architecte, le musée et le collectionneur, Musée du Pays de Sarrebourg; Malerei: Prozess und Expansion, Museum of Modern Art, MUMOK, Wien; oder so: Malerei konkret/abstrakt, Overbeck Society, Lübeck und Future and Reality, 5th Beijing International Art Biennale, National Art Museum of China.
Exhibition period: Friday, 24th March to Saturday, 11th March 2017
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Image caption: Florian Schmidt: installation view at Gallery Daniel Marzona
courtesy of the artist and Daniel Marzona, Berlin
Exhibitions Berlin Galleries: Florian Schmidt – Daniel Marzona | ART at Berlin
