Philip Martin Gallery is proud to present, “Creating Light,” an exhibition of the late works of Los Angeles-based, Austrian-born artist Hubert Schmalix (1952-2025). Most of the works were produced in 2024, with Schmalix reflecting on his long career, a life in Europe, Asia and the United States, and the practice of painting to which he daily returned.
Hubert Schmalix’s paintings have directness and mystery, light and color, a sense of things seen and remembered. Many of Schmalix’s works seem to reference Austria, where he was born and raised, inflected perhaps by the skies and distances of Los Angeles, the California city in which he made his home. The subject matter in Hubert Schmalix’s pictures - be it people, mountains, flowers - has a kind of Pop directness knocked back by way of expressive line work and brushed color areas. Schmalix’s works glow with intelligence, humor, and pictorial sensitivity, inviting a conversation across the picture plane. “One could say I produce a light that does not exist in reality,” he once commented, “I’m not a painter who paints the light. I create light through color. This is what defines painting.”
A member of the 1980s loose “Junge Wilde” group of German and Austrian artists, Schmalix reacted to authority with quiet individualism and grace. From Austria, Schmalix moved to the Philippines, and then to Los Angeles, where he lived and worked for almost forty years. Schmalix’s works consider the intervals and urban texture of LA, its bright yet hazy light, the flora, the range of people the spirit of whom contribute to its dynamic character. Coming from Austria, Schmalix found in Los Angeles, “different kinds of aesthetics,” a chance to determine for himself, “the things you are surrounded by, whether that is a chair, or walls, or colors. I wanted to be influenced by that.”
Hubert Schmalix draws on years of painting practice. “Every painting is abstract to me - even if it is a realistic image.” His hand is steady, slow and graceful. He considers European, American and Asian traditions. In Schmalix’s work, we see chalets, mountains, forests, hills and flowers rendered in a colorful, deliberative flat style that allows us to both see and experience the scene in front of which we stand. These paintings address memory and imagination, places near and far, things we have seen, things we might want to see, in life, in painting, its practice, and our experience.
Hubert SCHMALIX (1952-2025) was a pillar in the Los Angeles art community. In 2025, his work was the subject of the major solo exhibitions, “Once Upon a Time” at Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt (Klagenfurt, Austria) and “Flower, Figure, Landscape” at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). 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 on March 23, 2025 in Los Angeles.
The works from Hubert Schamlix’s exhibition, “Creating Light,” are on view at the gallery and online March 26 - April 9, 2026. Additional works can be viewed by appointment.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday 11-5 and Tuesdays by appointment. The gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles CA 90065. For additional images and information please call 323-507-2037 or email info@philipmartingallery.com.
