
MICHAELA SCHMID
MICHAELA SCHMID
©Marco Schürpf
Michaela Schmid's world is dominated by colours, shapes, and materials. For her, the radical reduction to formal means of expression is a response to the over-complexity of the world. Detached from time and space, she tries to navigate within order and chaos. In search of dynamic movement and harmonious balance, in search of form and materiality, her works are created intuitively in a dialogue between herself and the picture carrier. In a tireless struggle against norms and structures, the form in her most recent group of works resists its rigid corset and unfolds organically as a body. Under the influence of control and uncontrol, her visual language is constantly expanding. Her works are pictorial, installative and sculptural, large- and small-scale, space-filling or conceived as individual objects. They are characterised by a non-representational formal language and compositions that move on the border between abstraction and figuration. The driving force is to work towards a Gesamtkunstwerk that overcomes normative boundaries and creates space for new utopias.
Exhibitions
You can find future exhibitions on our page:
You can find Michaela Schmid’s portfolio here:
Kunstraum Hochdorf — Group Exhibition
In this exhibition Michaela Schmid showed a new work series called “Metaverse. A Static Moment in Time and Space”, where she explores artistic creation in a three-dimensional space.
Gallery Harlekin — Group Exhibition
Michaela Schmid's latest series,‘Body Shells’,invites viewers into a contemplative exploration of the artisticlife cycle and the elusive concept of the "end product."In constructing the 'Body Shells,' Schmid imbues thecanvases with an internal structure, inflating and defining their forms before subjecting them to an intricateand labor-intensive process of detachment, even resulting in small cuts and scrapes on her hands. This meticulous act results in subtle scars, tears, and creases–poignant vestiges of the forceful artistic birth.Inspired by artists like Frank Stella and Sam Gilliam, who challenged conventional notions of painting and canvas, Schmid's monochrome works invite viewers to observe color in its materiality. Close inspection reveals traces left behind during the process of peeling the works from their body, serving as a metaphor for the inevitability of change and the necessity to shed layers that no longer serve. The delicate tears, color abrasions, folds, and creases become poetic traces of time, immortalized in the visual narrative of transformation encapsulated by the body as art.Schmid's 'Body Shells', which also refer to the works of Swiss sculptor Heidi Bucher, exhibit similar processes, but differ in their approach and thematic content. While both artists explore the relationship between body and space, Bucher's 'Skinnings' are latex casts of real spaces that emphasise the psychological aspects of space. Both artists use strength and vigour to detach the "skins"from their former bodies. Unlike Bucher, however, Schmid creates the "skeletons" herself, and thus the function of the originally filled form of the 'BodyShells' is only the creation of the work itself.Through the installation of the‘Body Shell’ works, which are stiff yet still flexible, Schmid introduces an additional layer of dynamism, with the folds of the work being determined by the way they are hung, and later influenced by gravitational forces underscoring the ever-evolving nature of the artworks over time.Aligning herself with a historical continuum grappling with the canvas's role as a pictorial carrier, Schmid explores contrasts in her oeuvre—fullness and emptiness, process and product, surface, and traces.Her broader artistic trajectory, exemplified by the ongoing series 'Komplex,' delves into Constructivism principles, seeking harmony between form and function.Michaela Schmid's 'Body Shells' represents not merely an isolated creation but a culmination of her artistic journey, intricately interwoven with art historical echoes and contemporaneous explorations. Through a tapestry of form, color, and materiality, Schmid beckons viewers into a sensory and intellectual experience, embracing the ever-shifting landscape of artistic expression.
Text by: Vivienne Heinzelmann
Photo credits: Kilian Bannwart