Untitled Art

Erik Schmidt is a German painter and polyhedric artist based in Berlin.
Born in Herford in 1968, at the age of 21 he moves to Hamburg, where he begins to explore illustration, painting and the nightlife scene, combining them into a subversive creative output.
It is when he moves to Berlin to assist visual artist Piotr Nathan — after graduating from the Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg — that he develops a more complex artistic language. Within a few years Erik begins to make a name for himself worldwide and is represented by galleries such as the current Carlier Gebauer and Krinzinger.
From this period (2001 – 2004) are some of the works shown in the exhibition curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto at SECCI Firenze, such as the Berlin urban views that somehow echo Pointillism and the video “Parking” shot by Stephanie Kloss.
These ones set the grounds for understanding how his body of work has morphed over two decades. In fact, the main part of the exhibition features a selection from his most recent pictorial series, in which the canvases are printed with photographs of places he visits and people he meets, then overpainted with thick impasto brushstrokes: Palm Bombs (2022 – 2023), based on large-scale bottom up views of palm trees from Sri Lanka, as well as urban scenes from New York City (2023), that include voyeur-like portraits of people passing by the streets and a cityscape.
The exhibition perfectly embodies how Erik Schmidt’s style has evolved to a new level and is on view from 16th September to 4th November in SECCI Gallery.

Daria Dmytrenko (1993, Dnipropetrovsk, Ucraina) vive e lavora a Venezia. Dopo la prima formazione artistica a Dnipropetrovsk, ha frequentato i corsi di pittura presso l’Accademia Nazionale di Arti Visive e Architettura di Kiev (2012-15) e si è diplomata all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia nel 2021. Attraverso la pittura, l’artista esplora l’espressione visiva del subconscio, utilizzando gli impulsi intuitivi come strumento per far emergere i ricordi più profondi e trasformarli in composizione. Tra le mostre in cui sono state esposte le sue opere: Journey to the center of the mind, Stems (Paris, 2024) What’s behind the gloom, Setareh (Düsseldorf, 2023), Degree Show II, Palazzo Monti (Brescia, 2021); Extraordinario, Vulcano agenzia VEGA (Venezia, 2020); 103ma Collettiva Giovani Artisti, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Galleria Piazza San Marco (Venezia, 2020); Spin Off, Calle Lunga Santa Caterina (Venezia, 2019); Speculum mundi, Davide Gallo (Milano, 2018); Upon a Time, Galleria Eduardo Secci (Firenze, 2022); Fluuuuuido, Cassina Projects (Milano, 2022).

David Schnell, born in 1971 in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, is an international contemporary German painter. From 1995 to 2000 he completed his studies at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Lipsia and now he is associated with the New Leipzig School. Afterwards he has been a Arno Rink’s master class student from 2000 to 2022.

His works represent colorful and geometric landscapes, spaces composed from the intersections of colorful bars through which create a dynamic and spatial kaleidoscope. His choices are based on the representation of countryside landscapes and familiar places, realized with a dynamic and energetic perspective, creating such an abstract nature that its result is impossible to recognize.

The internal velocity of his works leads to a destabilization and discussion of the time itself.

He attracts the viewer through the multicolored pictorial space, where the artificial architectonics elements violate the natural space. He takes into consideration and reflects the urban threats towards the nature showcasing the never-ending developments of contemporary globalization.

In 2010 Schnell held a personal exhibition at Stunde Kunstverein, Hannover, which he then exposed at Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and at the Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen.

The artist was commissioned to project the “Friedensfenster” (Window of Peace) at Saint Thomas church, in Lipsia. In 2013 Schnell received the scholarship at Villa Massimo and in 2016 he was commissioned to project a window of Christuskirche Church in Cologne.

Alin Bozbiciu is a young, talented artist representing the figurative painting of the School of Cluj in Rumania. He excels in the medium of painting in all its facets. A soft wide brush stroke and abundant use of paint are characteristic for his style. The palette roams on the spectrum of earth colors and grisaille hues with very rare color outbursts.

The artist is passionate about subjects of his own private surrounding and the representation of familiar or even related individuals. Animals, especially dogs, star in many of his paintings. The subjects are set in private, intimate poses usually alone and seemingly unobserved. Often their gaze is turned to the floor, their bodies crouched or bent which conveys a feeling of the portrayed people being abandoned or immersed in private thoughts. The dogs reinforce the intimacy of the moment and create an emotional link between the person in the picture and the viewer. After further contemplation, one sometimes spots details in the pictures that do imply the presence of others.

Bozbiciu is dedicated to his subjects in constant repetition, serial work is a main method of his oeuvre. It allows him to study his subjects in different formats and variations, eliminating the clichés of content and representation. This method forces the viewer to look closer in order to distinguish the motives. This way Bozbiciu questions and challenges our perception of images. Despite his painting being figurative it is also extremely aloof only hinting at things instead of being explicit. Much is left ambiguous and open for interpretation or associations of the viewer. His big brush strokes are a tool to convey emotions and sensuality not enunciate content. Hence his work demands to be looked at again and again in order to be seen. They reveal their chore qualities when met with devotion.

Kevin Francis Gray was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. He currently lives and works between London and Pietrasanta.

Kevin Francis Gray has generated bodies of work which address the complex relationship between abstraction and figuration. At the core of the artist’s practice is an interrogation of the intersection of traditional sculptural techniques and contemporary life. Rather than working towards ideals of beauty or memorial, Gray attends to the psychological effects, often relying on textural surfaces rather than facial or bodily expressions. Furthering Gray’s decade of working with marble, his new work pushes the possibilities of the artist’s sculptural practice into new territories of physical and psychological expression.

He received his BA from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin (1995) and the School of Art Institute in Chicago (1996), and then went on to earn an MA in Fine Art from the Goldsmiths College in London. He works closely with the Giannoni marble studio in Pietrasanta, renowned for its use of sculpting techniques that date back to Canova and Michelangelo. His works have been included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London, UK; Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val de-Marne, Paris, France; Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam; Palazzo Arti Napoli, Naples, Italy; Musee d’art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, France; ARTIUM, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel; and Art Space, New York, USA.