Meet ArtisT Ana Schmidt
GALIA VELEVA: INTERVIEW WITH THIRD PLACE PRIZE WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL FiKVA AWARD FOR PAINTERS 2025 – ANA SCHMIDT
Q: Please, tell us a bit about your past. When and where were you born? Where did you grow up? And where do you live now?
With a father who worked in the import-export business, I encountered frequent relocations that disrupted any continuity in my early education. While I was born in Germany, my family moved to Vietnam and Thailand before my sixth birthday. Eventually my parents decided to send me to Barcelona, where I lived with my uncle so that I could focus on an education founded in arts and sciences. Throughout my youth, I studied with various art instructors and pursued summer art programs. To augment my education, I visited museums regularly to study the masters, collected a library of books on art history and persued instructional magazines and manuals to refine my craft. When the time came to commit to a career path, I followed my parents´ advice to major in architecture at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, Spain. Courses in the principles of composition and the fundamentals of both classical and modern art and architecture became the foundation for my future pursuits in graphical expression. After graduation, I worked for several years as a architect in Barcelona, before moving to Bilbao, where I worked in urban planning. Not only has my background in architecture and urban planning afforded my point of view, but also my growing awareness about the challenges that come with development and use of land, continue to inspire the themes of my paintings. Currently I am living and working again in Barcelona.
Q: What themes touch you the most? Do you have a favorite theme represented in your art?
My favorite theme is landscape. The idea of landscape whether addressed in a literal or in a more abstract or esoteric fashion, is the common thread running through my paintings. Sometimes it is a landscape that is re-engineered and re-thought, sometimes depicted. In search of the lost place offers an unglamorized impression of a place, a depiction of a fast changing social environment. Stuff of daily life ostensibly counts as the subject, the “something” of the picture. The iconography for this image includes an almost abandoned space, rubbish and decay, objects that would barely constitute proper subjects for paintings. The debris of urban streets, gain through painting, new, sometimes comic and banal characterization, to understand alternative values or meanings of things. Textures and weather conditions create temporary physical effects. They draw our attention on small details charged with visual intrigue. My landscapes are figurative paintings. In my opinion realism offers unique possibilities, it has different levels of interpretation. On one hand, it is a representation of a reality and, on the other hand, according to its content, focus, composition and atmosphere it offers a second reading, the evocation of a thought or an emotion. Layers of meaning are superimposed in one piece. I would say that there is even a third level of interpretation, if we consider the city itself and its representation as a metaphor of the human mind. In literature and cinema, these types of metaphors have been frequently used, such as in Metropolis or in the City of Glass of Paul Auster.
Q: What fascinates you in contemporary figurative art?
Just out of curiosity: What can you tell us about the place you painted?
Figurative painting, offers, in my opinion, unique possibilities of expression, it is inspiring, also without further explanation. I like its ambiguity; almost all figurative painters, have intended to represent reality itself, but also offer a second reading, the evocation of a thought or emotion, through metaphors and symbols. The work awarded, In search of the lost place, depicts a corner of Digbeth, Birmingham. However, upon a second reading, it also offers a general thought about the city itself, the narratives painted on the walls, the concept of art as representation, the idea of beauty…Digbeth, represented in In search of the lost place, is an
area where the Birmingham City Council and private initiatives have proposed different urban regeneration plans. It is a changing environment. Although I have depicted this metropolitan area in my paintings, it is not intended to be a faithful reflection of this specific area. I choose urban scenes as a reflection about the transformations that take place in the city, in its landscapes and territory. My work focuses on the so-called forgotten and topophobic landscapes, in the sense given by Yi FU Tuan, and the narratives of graffiti, to give them new meanings through representation in painting. Street art changes the way we experience the city, urban space. It disrupts a commercial system of signs and codes, turning a wall or a neighborhood into a collective territory.
Q: If you could have 3 virtual imaginary friends (famous or not, still alive or lived in the past …) in your life who have inspired you, who would/might they be? And why?
I am interested in Arnold Böcklin, above all, for his descriptive landscapes, that represent an allegorical atmosphere. For example, The Island of the Dead, is described by himself as ”a quiet place.” There is a magical impression of stillness and detachment. The painting condenses, as in a dream, a whole range of contradictory sensations and emotions: death, mystery, peace, silence, clarity, darkness… He manages to represent thoughts and emotions through a landscape, introducing in this traditional genre, symbolic effects and contents. As a landscape painter, I must also mention William Turner. He is responsible for the fact that landscape is being considered a major genre today. He is the artist who can most truthfully measure the moods of nature. His paintings depict shipwrecks, fires, natural disasters, and natural phenomena, such as sunlight, storms, rain, and fog. However, his paintings also feature elements typical of human activity of his time, such as steamships and trains. I am particularly interested in his work for its lighting effects and the contrast he creates between the (vibrant) natural elements and the obscure elements of human activity. In Caspar David Friedrich, we discover symbolism as a visual thought. His paintings also have a clear compositional structure, with a spiritualized view of nature. I am especially influenced by his quote: “Observe the forms closely, both the smallest and the largest; do not distinguish the small from the large, but carefully distinguish between details and the whole.”
Dead End / Acrylic on canvas / 164 x 114 cm / 2018
Q: : Do you find it important to participate in art awards? Why? What has participating in art competitions brought to your career?
In my opinion it is important to participate in art awards, not only because of the financial aspect, but also for their international reach out. This Award, from the FiKVA Foundation and others I have received in the US, in London and Italy are an incentive to continue working and create new work.
