Flowers, 2023
Over a remarkable career of five plus decades, Austrian-born, Los Angeles-based artist Hubert Schmalix made paintings, sculptures and works-on-paper that sang with both grace and beauty.
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 wrote about his art. “One could also say I produce a light that does not exist in reality.”
Hubert Schmalix’s painterly sense grew out of his youth in the 1980s as one of the loose “Junge Wilde” group of German and Austrian artists. These artists reacted to authority, and pushed expressionism - “blunt strokes” as one critic called it. In Schmalix’s work, this flowered into a luminous style that focused less on the image content, and more on color, form and surface. After living in the Philippines, Schmalix moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for almost forty years and raised his family.
“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’s work has been seen in context with important artists like Jonas Wood and Henry Taylor. From 1998–2008, he co-ran (with Roger Herman) Black Dragon Society, a now legendary LA gallery in Chinatown that launched the careers of many young artists. Hubert Schmalix was a pillar of the Los Angeles art community, beloved by friends and peers alike. His work tells us new things about painting, what we can learn from it, and from ourselves.
Hubert Schmalix (b. 1952 Graz, Austria; d. 2025 Los Angeles, CA) was the subject of a heralded February 2025 solo exhibition at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). 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’s painterly sense grew out of his youth in the 1980s as one of the loose “Junge Wilde” group of German and Austrian artists. These artists reacted to authority, and pushed expressionism - “blunt strokes” as one critic called it. In Schmalix’s work, this flowered into a luminous style that focused less on the image content, and more on color, form and surface. After living in the Philippines, Schmalix moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for almost forty years and raised his family.
“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’s work has been seen in context with important artists like Jonas Wood and Henry Taylor. From 1998–2008, he co-ran (with Roger Herman) Black Dragon Society, a now legendary LA gallery in Chinatown that launched the careers of many young artists. Hubert Schmalix was a pillar of the Los Angeles art community, beloved by friends and peers alike. His work tells us new things about painting, what we can learn from it, and from ourselves.
Hubert Schmalix (b. 1952 Graz, Austria; d. 2025 Los Angeles, CA) was the subject of a heralded February 2025 solo exhibition at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). 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.