The gallery ZContemporary presents Miriam Smidt's solo exhibition "NOW!", highlighting new paintings of the Berlin-based artist, video artworks and augmented reality.
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Miriam Smidt was born and raised in the northern region of Germany Ostfrieslan that borders with the Wadden Sea and North Sea – characterised by intense tides. The contrast between the movement of the water and the flatness of the country encouraged the artist’s inspiration. Indeed, she invented her own method of fluid painting with watercolour inks and paste that she calls liquid light painting. The paste dries invisibly, the colours shine and the canvas shines through the colours. 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.
Smidt’s works embodies liveliness and motion – overflow and emptiness, constant and volatile components. The solo exhibition focuses on the present moment, discarding what a “next time or a second chance” could bring. She brings to light this concept by capturing movement of time with her very own fluid painting technique. During the process of making her artworks, she encounters questions of change and transience, negotiates with the liquids and dissolves into colorgradients.
After a phase of gestural, dynamic application of water-based paste and inks, the liquids develop a life of their own, unfolding in graceful movements and effortlessly taking up space. Smidt feels in charge of slowing down the flow of the colours, while being aware of her limited impact on it as the liquids can either continue and extend or wash away. And the motion itself becomes its own static image when the water evaporates. Once it’s gone the transparency of the colours is reminiscent of its previous presence, but their shine and radiance point to a new direction: to a bright and colourful future.
The fluid dynamics of the artist’s work flow anchorless over boundaries of space and time and extend into the moment of perception, where they linger like an obituary to the long-gone motion of the creative process. The final work of art captures the dynamics of the painting process like a snapshot, allowing the moment to remain. The lucid vibrancy of Smidt's paintings are love confessions to "NOW!”
The exhibition will be running from December 8th to December 12th at the ZContemporary Gallery in Hamburg. The opening will be on December 10th at 6pm and and an Art Cafe event will take place on December 11th at 3pm in Grindelallee 129, Hamburg.
Cover: Miriam Smidt. Funfair Feels, 2022. Courtesy of ZContemporary
Written by Sveva Berto
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