Artworks from Gabriele Schmalfeldt

Turn to figuration

Abstract or figurative - for Gabriele Schmalfeldt it is not a question of faith. For her, her work is not a passion or destiny, but an instrument of knowledge and a toy in one. Her works challenge the viewer to follow the painter on the path from the real object to painting as object and, in the end, to understand them as signs - as signs that, in the best case, only emerge when elements of painting suddenly meet on the canvas in such a way that a new, unfamiliar object emerges that means a new optical experience for the recipient.

Schmalfeldt paints cosy pictures. She sees the reduction of human faces to coloured spots or indeterminate shadows as a typical stylistic device of her mode of expression. The art prize winner is one of a number of up-and-coming female artists who have discovered painting for themselves in recent decades.

The committed painter came to art through purely autodidactic studies at the beginning. Later, she attended various courses and seminars before continuing her professional training at the Bad Reichenhall Art Academy in 2000. There she worked with Alex Bär, Andrea Rozorea, Luise Kloos, Alfred Darda, Robert Zielasco, Matthias Kroth, among others.

Her works are simple and clear, without symbolic weight. Playful, interesting, fascinating are her purposefully reduced figures, often also group representations, which she works out in mixed media mainly on canvas. Anyone who tries to find political references in Schmalfeldt's pictures is wrong. The artist has private happiness in mind and avoids all criticism. Each work is a self-contained thought.

Exhibitions (excerpt)

2020 North German Art as a Guest in the Grauerort Fortress
2020 "Emotions" - Lüneburg
2019 KUNSTWERK-WERKKUNST - Reinbek
2019 International Art Exhibition FORM-A(R)T - Glinde
2018 Hamburg Gateway to the World
2018 KUNSTWERK / WORK ART - Reinbek
2017 AURAKURE - Hamburg
2017 Hamburg shows art - Stadtpark Hamburg
2016 ART Innsbruck - Innsbruck

Art Awards

2019 Palm Art Award - Recognition Price
2016 KITZ Award - Certificate of Excellence