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Andreas Schmitten (1980) is a German artist known for complex, volumetric installations of powerful, opulent aesthetics and formal charm as well as glossy white, curved, abstract shapes and comic-like drawings.

Life
Andreas Schmitten was born in Mönchengladbach, Germany. He studied philosophy and art history at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and later sculpting under Hubert Kiecol und Georg Herold at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He spent several years in the USA.

Works


In the planning phase of his artworks, Schmitten is concerned with questions about the people and the places with their respective histories, the seemingly banal, functional objects he creates, and the cultural structures that result from his actions. His multidisciplinary works of art are “free-standing sculptures, sculptural showcases that have been described as 'built pictures', on the wall or in a room, as models, as installations as well as drawings and picture stories.” In his works Schmitten borrows from religious objects, theater props and worldly goods. Since his student days, he has been using distinctive signature materials for his creations: wood, fabrics, needles, threads, a wide variety of plastics, metals, fluorescent tubes or LEDs, acrylic lacquer, colored and pigment pencils as well as paper and cardboard.

What all of his works of art have in common is the technically perfect finishing, often a striking but attractive color, a flawlessly smooth, reflective surface and elegantly rounded shapes that seem to refer to Art Deco or Modernism and suggest recognizability or interpretability. The Kunstverein Bremerhaven wrote: “But despite this clarity, despite the friendly colors and flawless execution, it is not uncommon for a mixture of fascination and strangeness to emerge. Because the beautiful appearance contrasts with paradoxical, bizarre stories, with decay and transience or an almost cool, repelling formal consequence.”

In 2012, Schmitten designed the installation “Prop in White and Red. The Staircase in the Museum” for the staircase in the Kunstmuseum Bonn. The references to movies and the viewer's physical feeling in the complex shape of the staircase were honored with the Start art award of the museum.

In 2013, Schmitten was commissioned by the director of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Marion Ackermann, to redesign the lecture hall and bar area in the private art gallery Schmela in Düsseldorf. In order to create a new atmosphere in the building (by architect Aldo van Eyck), colorful areas were installed in the style of the 1950s, for which Schmitten designed furniture, lighting, fittings and decorative elements and partly manufactured them himself.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, Schmitten was allowed to “reconfigure” the former home of the Ludwig couple in Aachen (today: the foundation's headquarters): After studying the history of the house and its residents, he gave the building's facade a bright magenta coat of paint and installed colorful canopies and awnings so that it somewhat resembled a Hollywood mansion.

Andreas Schmitten received several awards and prizes for his work, including the Start art award of the Kunstmuseum Bonn (2012), the Most Promising Young Artists' Award of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Rheinland (2013) and the Falkenrot Award of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2017).

Andreas Schmitten is a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts since 2022.

Public Collections

 * Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
 * Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany
 * Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
 * Art Collection of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
 * Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Germany
 * Cragg Foundation, Wuppertal, Germany


 * Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China
 * Collection of The Perimeter, London, England

Solo exhibitions (selection)

 * 2012 "Kunstpreis Start", Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
 * 2013 "Ein Set für das Schmela Haus. Bar und Saal.", Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf, Germany
 * 2014 "Graf-Adolf-Straße", Linn Lühn, Düsseldorf, Germany
 * 2016 "Andreas Schmitten", König Galerie, Berlin, Germany
 * 2016 "Heiliges, Anleitungen und Passstücke", Schönewald, Düsseldorf, Germany
 * 2017 "Falkenrot Preis 2017", Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
 * 2018 "Andreas Schmitten", Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Germany
 * 2018 König Galery, London, England
 * 2019 "Stehend im Raum", Kunstverein Bremerhaven, Germany
 * 2019 "Andreas Schmitten", Philara – Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst, Düsseldorf, Germany
 * 2019: "Nothing New", Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
 * 2021: "Sesshaft", König Galerie, Berlin, Germany
 * 2022: "Skulpturen", Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal, Germany
 * 2022: "Einst, den Anderen...", Schönewald, Düsseldorf, Germany
 * 2022: "Vor Ort", Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftung, Aachen, Germany
 * 2023: "Andreas Schmitten. Vitrinen", G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig, Germany
 * 2023: "Andreas Schmitten. Zeichnungen", Künstlerverein Malkasten, Jacobihaus, Düsseldorf, Germany

Books by Schmitten

 * Bodies. Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), Andreas Schmitten (Neuss), König Galerie (Berlin), Schönewald (Düsseldorf) and Koenig Books (London), 2017.
 * Chimera Electrified. König Galerie (Berlin), Schönewald und Beuse (Düsseldorf), Koenig Books (London), 2017.
 * Nothing New. Kunstpalais Erlangen, Koenig Books (London), 2019.
 * Stehend im Raum/ Standing in Space. Kunstverein Bremerhaven, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König (Köln), 2023.