Artist: Oskar Schmidt
Exhibition title: Equal
Venue: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz , Germany
Date: February 11 – April 23, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser
„Equal”, the title of the solo exhibition by the artist Oskar Schmidt at Museum Gunzenhauser in Chemnitz, refers not only to the digital duplication and mirroring of images and elements of images that can be observed in some of his recent works, but also to how photographic images can be created, modified and multiplied in such an easy and, at the same time, complex manner in the 21st century – and also to how confusingly the reading of these images can come unstuck. The patinated surfaces that lent an anachronistic, „Old World” character to his previous works have been replaced in his new pictures by textureless backgrounds and smooth reflective surfaces such as those that can be found in the digital image databases of stock photography agencies. Photoshop was once a hidden component of his working method, but he now makes full use of the possibilities and linguistics of the virtual, digital space with which contemporary photography is inextricably linked.
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Equal, 2017, Installation view, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz
Oskar Schmidt, Water (No.3), Detail, 2017, PVC Wall sticker, 142 x 142 cm
Oskar Schmidt, Portrait (No.1), 2015, C-print, 117 x 144 cm
Oskar Schmidt, Water (No.1), 2015, C-print, 104 x 125 cm, diptych
Oskar Schmidt, Table (No.1), 2015, C-print, 104 x 85 cm
Oskar Schmidt, Portrait (No.3), 2016, C-print, 115 x 134 cm, diptych
Oskar Schmidt, Table (No.3), 2015, C-print, 104 x 85 cm