Standing in front of Axel Schmid’s Big Points makes you wonder. A group of huge, circular oil paintings in different colors measuring two by two meters each, they command the exhibition space powerfully, creating an immersive visual field.
Spend a few minutes staring into the center of the black one, for example, and you start asking yourself: Is it just my imagination, or is the left side slightly flat? As your eye begins to travel, you start discovering nuances and textures. The paint drops at the bottom draw the eye down. The curves at the top draw the eye up. What are those tiny flaws around the edge? Is that a little dent in the middle? Step back slowly to take in the optical effects, and suddenly you see it’s not black at all; it’s Prussian blue. Or is it? Why can’t I stop looking at it?
Mastering the art
Abstract painting has always been Schmid’s favored form of expression, allowing shapes and color to unfold as ends in themselves. The German artist is not the first to try his hand at drawing freeform circles and won’t be the last. It’s not about achieving technical perfection. That would just be an exercise in geometry. It’s about personal expression using a unique style.
“Everyone knows what a perfect circle looks like. A machine can do that,” says Schmid. “The real beauty in these works of art is in their imperfection. Moving away from the ideal is what sets the viewer’s own creative process in motion.”
Schmid comes from the southern part of Germany that borders France and Switzerland. A top wine region, it’s an outdoor paradise with the mythical, mystical Black Forest at its heart. He studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe under Max G. Kaminski making him part of an abstract expressionist movement that began in post war Germany.
At that time, artists like Hann Trier were breaking away from the rigid, ideological realism of National Socialism by experimenting with bold colors, geometric shapes, and swirling patterns. Kaminski expanded on that legacy by bringing richer texture, emotional resonance, and contemporary forms into the tradition.
Moving on
Axel Schmid has certainly mastered the art form of his teachers and influencers. During the past decade he’s been using texture, shape and color to indulge his own personal form of visual provocation.
On a collage of supermarket discount coupons for meat, he writes the stew pots are empty in chalk on a field of dried pig’s blood, addressing the broader issue of industrial livestock farming and mass consumption. In a creamy vanilla textured painting titled Genius jerked off by his own ego, the materials include oil paint, champagne crayon, and a paste used for treating fungal infections.
But the artist is moving on, and having fun with it. On a three-panel canvas measuring 210 by 70 cm, a huge black iguana cavorts on a red carpet against a backdrop of pale, delicate colors. With this move towards representational art, or Gegenständlichkeit, Schmid is placing himself firmly in a contemporary space and opening himself to a whole new world.
Man or machine?
His current project rings all the bells around artificial intelligence in art. It involves drawing thousands and thousands of completely unique three-dimensional cube-shaped objects. Schmid could certainly train an AI agent to replace the many repetitive, manual moves needed for each drawing. But that would just be another exercise in geometry, or rather, in prompting.
By creating a balanced composition ten thousand times and never repeating a single element, this particular project ultimately demonstrates that AI remains inherently inferior to humans in originality and character. “It’s about visual storytelling using only shades of gray and texture. Drawing not only fills me with joy, it inspires my work as a musician,” says Schmid who earns his living with music as well as art.
A singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, and producer, Schmid performs with various groups, including his band The Funky Valentines. His music, released under the name MAEANDER, blends rock, pop, and blues, and is available on all major platforms. He also runs a high-end recording studio in Karlsruhe.
Setting the beat
In art and music, you either have it, or you don’t, and Axel Schmid certainly does. What separates people like him from the crowd is a combination of talent, presence, and charisma. It begins with exceptional skill, with the musician or artist in full command of their medium, be it voice, instrument, or paintbrush. This mastery enables them to convey ideas, emotions, and concepts in ways that resonate deeply with others.
Their heightened empathy, for example, gives musicians the ability to read and respond to their audience, creating an interactive loopof energy between the performers and the crowd. Artists who have it don’t just perform or create. They interpret the world in a way no one else does. Originality means their work can only exist through them.
Having it himself, Schmid recognizes the trait in others. He’s especially attuned to the drummers in his orbit, because they create the heartbeat other musicians build on. He believes that drawings and paintings possess a similar, subtle pulse that can’t be faked. If it is there, the viewer feels it instantly.
Axel Schmid has always been marching to the beat of his own drum. It’s surely a lonely path at times, and a difficult one trying to balance the dual demands of art and music. But at the same time, surely, it is that interactive loop of energy that enables artists like him to play the complex game of give and take with their audience, and reap their own rewards.
Click here for German version.