Marion Schmidtke
...WHERE SILENCE BECOME SPACE...
"I build up the space of the painting with layers of paint and immerse myself in a tranquil sphere characterized by peace and a deep connection with nature."
"My desire to break free from representation leads to a language that is less rooted in reality, more abstract, and more focused on directly expressing emotions – a need that is as aesthetic as it is spiritual."
Marion Schmidtke lives in northern Germany, surrounded by the Baltic Sea, and explores motifs of nature, both above and below water, in her large-scale acrylic and oil paintings.
Inspired by this natural world, she creates a balance between abstraction and naturalness. Through layering and a certain stillness, works of luminous color, light, and depth emerge.
Her participation in numerous international exhibitions and projects, from New York to London, has earned her worldwide recognition.
She studied art and music at the University of Duisburg, taught at various schools, and was also a lecturer in painting until 2022.
The painter lives on Fehmarn, where she also has her studio.
WHERE SILENCE BECOMES SPACE
Living on the windswept island of Fehmarn, surrounded by the Baltic Sea's shifting blues, Marion Schmidtke has cultivated a practice rooted in stillness, light, and the subtle choreography of nature. Her large-scale paintings open like quiet horizons, not merely to be seen, but to be entered.
In her work, space becomes an atmosphere, a temperature, a pulse. Schmidtke's canvases seem to breathe. Soft tonal transitions dissolve into one another like fog blending with sky, while her clear, disciplined compositions create a delicate equilibrium between presence and absence.
She does not depict the sea; she distills the sensation of standing before it, the openness, the hum beneath the silence, the invitation to pause.
Her practice is an exercise in courageous restraint, allowing small gestures to reveal vast emotional terrain.
What makes Schmidtke's work so compelling is her deep sensitivity to thresholds: where light becomes shadow, where stillness becomes movement, where the visible touches the invisible.
These liminal zones form the emotional architecture of her paintings.
Within them, viewers encounter a space that holds both intimacy and expansiveness, clarity and mystery. Her visual rooms are not defined by borders but by breath, rooms where the mind can rest and the senses awaken.
A recurring theme in her work is the interplay between what is shown and what is withheld. Schmidtke invites a slow gaze, encouraging viewers to notice the quiet details: a tremor of reflected light, a shift in tone that feels like a distant tide, a silence that deepens rather than empties.
This act of looking – attentive, patient, open – is the key to understanding her art.
In a world saturated with noise, Marion Schmidtke offers something rare: paintings that remind us of the beauty and necessity of calm, and the profound possibilities hidden within stillness.
https://www.marionschmidtke.de/
Vita
1983 - 1989: Studied art and music at the University of Duisburg
1990 - 2014: Teaching and lecturing activities at various types of schools
Since 2014: Freelance artist on Fehmarn
Solo exhibitions:
2016 WerkKunstGallery, Bergamo, Italy
2019 Alessandro Berni Gallery, Perugia, Italy
2019 My Micro Gallery, Milano, Italy
2020 My Micro Gallery, Milano, Italy
2021 Floating Shapes and Fluid Narratives, Unlock Gallery, Digital Exhibition, Italy
2023 "Art at the Gate", Hamburg Airport, Germany
2024 Contemporary Art Gallery Marion Schmidtke, Fehmarn, Germany
Group exhibitions:
2017 Earth Creativity & Sustainability, Biennale of Contemporary Art, Florence, Italy
2017 European Art Spaces Gallery 80, Berlin, Germany
2017 WerkKunst Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2017 Onishi Project Gallery, NYC, USA
2017 "Artwork-Work of Art", Reinbek Castle/Hamburg, Germany
2018 Biennale of Nations, Venice, Italy
2018 The Royal Opera Arcade Gallery, London, UK
2018 Exposition Internationale Artistes du Monde, Cannes, France
2018 Camden Image Gallery, London, UK
2018 Onishi Gallery, NYC, USA
2018 Merlinos Gallery, Florence, Italy
2019 Onishi Gallery, New York, USA
2019 Camden Image Gallery, London, UK
2019 Hanseboot trade fair, Hamburg, Germany
2022 "Interconnecting Lines", European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain
2022 Artio Gallery Toronto, Spain
2022 Innsbruck Art Fair Art 22, Van Gogh Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2023 "Interconnecting Lines", Artio Gallery Toronto, NYC, USA
2023 "Contemporary Art Fair 23", Van Gogh Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2024 The London Biennale of Women in Art, Artio Gallery Toronto, London, UK
2024 "Red Dot Miami", Artventurous Art and Design Magazine, Issue 40, USA
2024 Exhibition Galleri V 58, Aarhus, Denmark
2025 Exhibition Galleri V 58, Aarhus, Denmark
2025 Hamburger Kunstgalerie, Hamburg, Germany
2026 Exhibition Galleri V 58, Aarhus, Denmark
2026 Artventurous Magazine Issue 44, NYC, Miami during Art Basel, USA
