Werner Schmidt Exhibition Extended Thru July 3rd at Howard Scott Gallery

The exhibition Berlin Spring has been extended through Saturday, July 3rd at the Howard Scott Gallery (529 W. 20th, 7th Floor).

The exhibition takes its title Berlin Spring, from a suite of paintings executed in 2009-10 similarly to the Berlin suite of painting from 2005, several of these paintings share a structure on which multiple panels, each conceived as a separate work, are joined as a diptych or as a quartet.

The paintings, however, comes from another point of departure, another kind of perception altogether. Schmidt moves his gestural abstractions further away from his observation of the external visual world. His quadrant canvases contain broad sweeping strokes that are less bound to the landscape and thus contain a more existential form of liberation. The thinly washed pigments are directly applied and less given to formal procedures. There is a freshness that resounds with speed and the resolute fullness of a new pictorial space. The residue of paint that slices through the thinly opaque areas on top give evidence of a painterly process yet, the work is less about process, than it's about endurance and swift insight.

Werner Schmidt was born in the Black Forest region in 1953. For the past several years, he has divided his time between studios in the town of Oberkirch and Berlin. The artist was included in a recent exhibition at the Royal Hiberian Academy in Dublin, Ireland entitled "Joyce In Art". His work is in numerous collections in Europe and in the United States. The forthcoming show marks his seventh exhibition with Howard Scott Gallery.

Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information, visit online at www.howardscottgallery.com.