Aurel Schmidt
Born 1982 in Kamloops, British Columbia
Lives and Works in New York, New York
Aurel Schmidt’s intricately detailed drawings include objects and creatures such as flies, condoms, and cigarette butts that are pieced together to form larger figures. Master of the Universe: FlexMaster 3000 is a portrait of the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull mythic creature who represents both creation and destruction. Through exquisite draftsmanship, Schmidt questions conventions of beauty and masculinity as well as standard associations with decomposition, rot, and refuse. She relates her interest in finding the beauty in ugliness to the idea of the human condition as a cyclical process of renewal and decay. By using the detritus of our lives as the building blocks for her subjects, Schmidt’s work becomes a sort of memento mori—a reminder of our own vulnerability and mortality.
Read About the Artist
"Women’s Work"
—T Magazine/The New York Times (February 2010)
"Studio Visit: Aurel Schmidt"
—T Magazine/The New York Times (August 2009)
"The New New York Art Scene"
—Interview (June 2009)
Aurel Schmidt, Master of the Universe/FlexMaster 3000, 2010. Graphite, colored pencil, acrylic, beer, dirt, and blood on paper. 89.5 × 52.5 in. (227.3 × 133.35 cm); framed: approx. 92 × 55 in. (233.7 × 139.7 cm). Collection of the artist
Aurel Schmidt, The Fall, 2010. Pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, beer, dirt, and blood on paper, 84 × 48 in. (213.4 × 121.9 cm). Collection of the artist
