Hubert Schmalix

Smolka Contemporary is pleased to announce our participation in the art fair Vienna Contemporary with a solo presentation by Hubert Schmalix in the Context Sector.

Hubert Schmalix (*1952, Graz, AT; †2025, Los Angeles, USA) is known for his luminous landscapes, nudes, floral still lifes and cityscapes. In the 1980s, Schmalix established himself as a ‘Young Wild One’ (‘Neue Malerei’) with an expressive, gestural style. Over the decades, and through his relocation to the Philippines and later to Los Angeles, he developed a contemplative and reduced form vocabulary. In his later years, figures and self-portraits became more prominent. These paintings are both a chronicle and an expression of personal developments in the painter’s life.

“His paintings are clear, straightforward and yet mysterious,” writes Günther Holler-Schuster (Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz) about Schmalix’s work.

Hubert Schmalix studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was a visiting professor at UCLA in Los Angeles (1992–2005) and a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1997–2006). In 2022, he was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art. As early as 1980 he took part in the Aperto 80 exhibition at the Venice Biennale and in 1984 in the Sydney Biennale. Solo and group exhibitions were held regularly at major Austrian institutions such as the Albertina Modern, the Bank Austria Kunstforum, the Schlossmuseum Linz and the Neue Galerie Graz. He exhibited in galleries in Vienna, Düsseldorf, Brussels, and Los Angeles, among others. Schmalix has regularly presented solo exhibitions at Smolka Contemporary since the gallery opened in 2013. Hubert Schmalix lived and worked in Los Angeles and Vienna.