German artist Erik Schmidt creates works that engage with symbolic processes within various social subsystems. Immersing himself in foreign contexts plays a significant role in his paintings, videos, photographs, and drawings. Throughout his work, Schmidt continues to consciously adopt the figure of the outsider, whether in the crowded urban landscape of Tokyo, the camps of the American Occupy movement, among wine and olive producers in the West Bank or the aristocratic hunting circles of his native North Rhine-Westphalia. This removed stance offers him a distinct insight into group dynamics and the various clichés, stereotypes, codes, rituals, norms, patterns, and conventions they all hold.
He has participated in group and solo exhibitions at institutions such as Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Artists Space, New York; MARTa Herford, Herford; Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Matsumoto; and Museum der Moderne, Salzburg.
Selected Works
Erik Schmidt
On top, 2018
Oil on Fine Art Print on canvas
108 × 72 cm
Erik Schmidt
ALDI Reisen, 2019
Oil on Fine Art Print on canvas
40,50 × 27,50 cm
Erik Schmidt
City on the moon, 2019
Oil on Fine Art Print on canvas
218 × 294 cm
Erik Schmidt
Kita-Ikeburo, 2018
Oil on canvas
108 × 72 cm
Erik Schmidt
No Crisis (2), 2022
Gouache on newsprint
54.5 × 34.5 cm
Erik Schmidt
Mudra, 2023
oil on Fine Art print on canvas,
190 × 190 cm
Erik Schmidt
Läßt sich nicht formatieren!, 2019
Oil on Fine Art Print on canvas
170 × 110 cm
Erik Schmidt
Zashigay, 2018
oil on canvas
138 × 92 cm
c|g Exhibitions
MENSCHENBILD | Madrid
08.03.–25.05.2024
Mutanten | Madrid
15.04.–17.06.2023
ongoing schmidt pick | Berlin
10.03.–17.04.2021
So what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? | Madrid
27.02.–01.03.2020
From Hand To Mind | Berlin
16.11.2019–15.02.2020
The Only Way Is Up | Berlin
08.06.–03.08.2019
Rays around you | Berlin
30.10.2016–07.01.2017
Blank | Berlin
14.06.–02.08.2014
Working the landscape | Berlin
02.05.–07.06.2008
Hunting Grounds | Berlin
10.06.–31.07.2006
Der schönste Jäger von Deutschland | Berlin
26.04.–28.05.2005
Suitwatcher's Anonymous | Berlin
08.07.–09.08.2003
Models Parking Cars | Berlin
27.01.–10.03.2001
Selected Publications
Erik Schmidt, Folge den Markierungen, Publisher: Museum Marta Herford and HDZ NRW, 2019
Erik Schmidt, Downtown, Verlag Walther König, 2013
Erik Schmidt, UP (Urban Posing), Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam. Snoek, Köln, 2004
Erik Schmidt, Gatecrasher, Marta Herford, Kunstverein Gütersloh, Werkstatt Bleichhäuschen, Diotima Gesellschaft e.V. Kerber, 2010