Philip Martin Gallery is delighted to present, “Gravity,” an online exhibition of new and never-before-seen works-on-paper and paintings by Austrian master Hubert Schmalix (1952-2025) in conversation with those of Los Angeles-based artist Laurie Nye (b. 1972, Memphis, TN). For over five decades, Hubert Schamlix made works of tremendous grace, looking to imagination and memory to reach heights of expression. Laurie Nye orients her pieces around interiority and intuition, exploring places both real and unreal to find deeper layers of experience.
The work of Austrian-born Hubert Schmalix first became known in the early 1980’s as part of what was commonly described as the Neue Wilde (New Wild). Discussed in terms of painting with a capital ’P,’ Schmalix’s paintings were seen as an energized, expressive reaction to the dry, intellectual art climate of the late 1970’s that had decided painting was totally obsolete. Schmalix moved to Los Angeles from Austria by way of the Philippines in 1987; in Southern California, he pursued painting’s big questions and classic themes: landscapes, nudes and still life.
Hubert Schmalix’s works are not just pictures; they are also an investigation into how paintings are made. At the same time, they are an investigation into the practice of painting itself. “My work can be interpreted in many ways, of course. And that’s a good thing,” he once commented, going on to point out that, “I simply try to let the picture develop by itself, not to aim for a direct goal, but to work constantly while detaching gravity.” Hubert Schmalix’s work is defined by vibrant colors, simplified forms, and a distinctive visual language all coming together in bold, color-rich compositions that immerse the viewer in layered, painterly worlds.
The paintings of Laurie Nye depict Los Angeles and Tennessee - the two places she calls home - as well as a range of real and mythic places. “I use my intuitive process and combine it with memory and ideas about nature and landscape,” Nye writes. “I grew up camping and fishing in the Ozarks in Arkansas. My father instilled in me a reverence of stillness and oneness with the water. It wasn’t boring to sit in a boat for hours, learning to cast a line and catching only guppies or twigs. It was everything else that mattered. The sounds of the birds, the animals all around, the mysterious dark of the water and how it sounded when we floated along with the motor off.” In her work, Nye encourages the viewer’s sense of landscape, not only in terms of specific locales, but also in terms of what these locales mean with regard to personal expression and freedom. “I love the idea of fictional places, fabled places, memories and experiences of real places all mixed together in a non-linear way - playing with the notion of what landscape painting could be or should be.”