My first full single artist exhibition – in March 2010. It was great fun – you can read a first review here. I will write a second (more practical) review later. Below are the details about this exposition.
Times:
Opening: Sunday 14th of March 2010 – starting at 16:00.
Regular Times: Friday 12th of March to 7th of April 2010.
Location:
A gallery in Amsterdam in the Baarsjes area.
- Galerie de Stoker
- Witte de Withstraat 124
1057 ZH Amsterdam
Exhibition Statement / Artist’s Vision
In this exhibition Thomas Schmall gives an overview of his diverse approaches at painting while demonstrating the common element between them: the search for a powerful beauty in everyday reality.
Thomas Schmall is a young artist from Dresden, Germany who lives and works in Amsterdam. Besides his career in the video game industry he has become a promising fine artist. Gallery ‘De Stoker’ proudly presents his first solo exhibition, showing his wide range of drawings, water colors, oil paintings and digital art.
As a skilled artist, Thomas effectively uses the specific strengths of different painting media. This gives him the means to bring out the features of life that an artists’ eye sees but we often grow too insensitive for. The sketchbook that always accompanies him allows Thomas to capture at any moment the beautiful shapes and patterns that we encounter night and day. The presented selection of these ink drawings shows scenes and people from the city of Amsterdam, as well loose composition experiments. They reveal the search for a harmonic arrangement of shapes that is influenced by traditional Japanese art. As for example by Tawaraya Soutatsu and Utagawa Hiroshige, who’s paintings are highly experimental and, although they depict real world objects, have a nearly magic tranquility.
Thomas regards watercolors as an excellent tool for catching the vibrancy of colors and light. This becomes evident in his vivid impressions from travels to Italy and Japan, as well as color studies of nude models.
These ‘quick’ mediums form an interesting contrast to his oil paintings. According to Thomas, oil paint allows the most refined portrayal of subtle light effects that surround us. Like a winter sun reflected on ice or the elusive color transitions on a female body. These works establish the central point of the exhibition – with views of Dutch cities, nude models and a large range of portraits. With these portraits the artist strives to convey his enthusiasm of observing the uniqueness in the people he meets.
Last but not least the collection of Thomas’s digital art introduces his most unrestricted tool of expression. It lets him dive into the fantastic and dreamlike parts of our life and imagination.
Thomas is a self taught artist, who puts high importance on mastering these tools. He believes that this is the basis for convincing artistic communication. At the same time brush strokes and sketched areas of the images often stay visible, so that his process of creation becomes a part of the artwork. Realism artists like John Singer Sargent, Ilya Repin and Jacob Maris have been an inspiration in this aspect. And like them, he has the ambition to stay close to the true appearance of a subject.
This gives the audience the key to relate to his work. They can recognize elements from their own experience, while at the same time finding new aspects. Thomas wants to emphasize those special insights, in the belief that somewhere around us there is a deeper, hidden world, waiting to be discovered.
– Dutch Press Release Download