JULIA SCHMID WINS BONN ART AWARD 2011

Within different series of paintings about urban and rural plant biotopes Julia Schmid (*1969 in Wuppertal) connects questions about topograpic contextualization and social identity formation with the analysis of a painting’s structure in regard to representation and painterly autonomy.

Phases of research during which the artist collects plants growing along certain sections of paths always precede the act of painting. Canvases are then filled with paintings of the finds, complemented by photographs of the localities and, sometimes, by cartographic details. By doing so, the artist precisely translates the seen into the painted while always sticking to her very own painting style. Plants are spread on bright white canvases like on dissection tables and turn into apparatuses of a procedure that does not primarily confirm the index of the photograph but rather insists on its own painterly logic.

Julia Schmid’s work is marked by the consistency with which it presents the act of painting as a process, connecting the medium’s introspective character with a site-specific and society relevant dimension and thus proving the  relevancy painting still has today.

The Bonn Art Award

Established in 1985, the Bonn Art Award addresses regional artists and was presented for the last time in 2005. In 2009, the award was announced in its new concept and now includes a 3- or 6-month international studio scholarship. The award which is endowed with € 20,000 is presented in a biennial rhythm in cooperation with Bonn-based IVG-Immobilien GmbH who support the scholarship with a studio apartment in the artist’s city of choice. The prize sum serves to cover the artist’s living expenses.

The awardee can choose to spend their scholarship in the following European cities: Berlin, Amsterdam, Budapest, Brüssel, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Mailand, Paris, Prag, Rom, Stockholm, Warschau or Wien. The results of the scholarship are to be integrated into the exhibition taking place at Kunstmuseum Bonn. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue.