Hubert Schmalix paints with pictorial precision and intellectual directness. His use of color, line and composition speaks almost instinctively, responding in a give-and-take to our own visual impulses. “I’m not a painter who paints the light. I create light through color. This is what defines painting,” Hubert Schmalix comments. “One could also say I produce a light that does not exist in reality.”
In the 1980s, Hubert Schmalix was a member of the loose “Junge Wilde” group of German and Austrian artists. These artists reacted to authority and pushed expressionism. In Hubert Schmalix’s work, this flowered into a luminous vocabulary of color, line, shape and surface. From Austria, Schmalix moved to the Philippines, and then to Los Angeles, where he lived and worked for almost forty years. “I was most interested in finding different kinds of aesthetics. Starting with the things you are surrounded by, whether that is a chair, or walls, or colors. Beyond that, I was fascinated by the diversity of cultures here. That’s what I found [in Los Angeles], and I wanted to be influenced by that.”
Hubert SCHMALIX (1952-2025) was a pillar in the Los Angeles art community. His 2025 solo exhibition at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) was heralded. Schmalix exhibited in Austria regularly with solo shows at Smolka Contemporary (2024, Vienna, Austria) and Schlossmuseum Linz (2024, Linz, Austria). Important exhibitions featuring Schmalix’s work include Venice Biennale (1993, Venice Italy); Foundation Cartier (1986, Paris, France); “An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture” (1984, Museum of Modern Art, New York); and Biennale Sydney (1984, Sydney, Australia). Other recent solo museum exhibitions include Schlossmuseum Linz (2024, Linz, Austria) and Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum. Graz (2023, Graz, Austria). Schmalix’s work has been featured in solo and group shows at Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY); Museum Moderner Kunst (Vienna, Austria); Kunsthaus Bregenz (Bregenz, Austria); Schlossmuseum Linz (Linz, Austria); Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum (Graz, Austria); Museum der Moderne (Salzburg, Austria); Sammlung Essl, (Vienna, Austria); Kunstmuseum Winterthur (Winterthur, Switzerland); Folkwang Museum (Essen, Germany); Kunstverein München (Munich, Germany); Sammlung Grothe (Duisburg, Germany); Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (Bonn, Germany); Mannheimer Kunstverein (Mannheim, Germany); Österreichisches Kulturinstitut (Paris, France); Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Bologna, Italy); Museo di Roma-Palazzo Braschi (Rome, Italy); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, Portugal); Fundación la Caixa (Madrid, Spain); Kunsthalle Budapest (Budapest, Hungary). Museum collections include Neue Galerie Graz - Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz; Österreichische Galerie, Belvedere, Vienna; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; Sammlung Essl; Albertina Modern, Vienna; Museum der Moderne Salzburg Rupertinum; Kunsthaus Bregenz; Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz; Herbert Liaunig, Privatstiftung, Neuhaus; Museum Angerlehner, Upper Austria; Sammlung Krinzinger, Vienna; Kunstmuseum Bern. Hubert Schmalix was born in 1952 in Graz, Austria. He died in 2025 in Los Angeles.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday from 11-5. For additional images, or information please email info@philipmartingallery.com, or call 323-507-2037. Philip Martin Gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles, CA 90065 in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.