MIRIAM SMIDT

Biography / Artist Statement

Water(colour) - source of life

Miriam Smidt was born and raised in Ostfriesland, a barren, windy region of Germany bordering the unique Wadden Sea, an area of the North Sea with unusually intense tides. The constant movement of the water - enriched with the swirl of life - contrasts with the emptiness and flatness of the country in this area. Smidt always felt drawn to these waters in the same way that she has always felt drawn to art. But for over a decade she didn't dare give herself over to the pull of the current until she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2016. This incident sloshed into her mind like a storm tide - she gave up her work as a social scientist and an author to follow her artistic path.

Smidt invented her own method of fluid painting with watercolor inks and paste that she calls liquid light painting. The paste dries invisibly, the colors shine and the canvas shines through the colors. In Smidt's artwork you can see the ebb and flow of her liquid inks throughout the drying process, follow their erosions.

Smidt's works refer to the struggle for a balance between a life with limitations and the unconditional will to break cages and chains. Her art highlights the (in)ability to control the liquids on your paper as it is to control anything else in the world. You try to compose and art piece - a life, curriculum vitae, your memoirs - and everything runs like water through your fingers.

Smidt's works show moments of energy and dynamism; the image can be changed with one swipe of your hand, similar to the dynamics of life, which can suddenly change with one fateful swipe. Transience and legacies... For Smidt, there is no answer to the heavy and grim facts of life but to oppose them with levity - with the transparency and brightness of the watercolor inks she uses.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2021: "Elysium", ArtWErk Berlin, Germany

2020: "Vogelperspektiven" / "Birds' Perspectives", Städtische Bibliotheken Berlin, Germany

Group exhibitions

2021

"Transience", ZContemporary, Hamburg, Germany
"Women in Art", Berlin Art Week, ZContemporary, Germany
"Morgen", Inselgalerie, Berlin, Germany
"Love Abstract", Cool Art Movement, Rome, Italy
"Love & Other Stories", ZContemporary, Hamburg, Germany

2020

"2020 - A Retrospective", virtual exhibition due to Covid 19 - ZContemporary, Hamburg, Germany
"Aggregatzustände" / "Physical States", fem*art-Kollektiv, Berlin, Germany
"The Art of Distancing", ZContemporary, Hamburg, Germany
"Spring is not canceled", virtual exhibition due to Covid 19 - ZContemporary, Hamburg, Germany
"Abstract Matters", ZContemporary, Hamburg, Germany

Art Fairs