Dominik Schmitt has undoubtedly succeeded in this. He creates pictures that are idiosyncratic in the best sense of the word, that catch the eye, that linger in the memory. 

Schmitt's paintings confront us with glimpses into the inner workings of human and animal life. Although the figurative dominates, the creatures in Schmitt's pictorial world are always highly idiosyncratic beings from an in-between realm, located beyond reality. Again and again we encounter amalgams of human and animal, often with limbs deformed or out of proportion. They sometimes seem to almost jump out of the picture – possessing a terrible beauty and fascination in their uniqueness,

in their otherness. One might feel a bit transported to the world of figures found on the capitals and among the gargoyles of Romanesque and Gothic churches, or in the depictions of hell of a Hieronymus Bosch or Pieter Breughel – a playful approach to the unfathomable and the frightening.

THE MORE INTENSIVELY ONE EXAMINES THE PICTORIAL WORLD OF DOMINIK SCHMITT, THE LESS DARK AND GLOOMY IT TURNS OUT TO BE. INSTEAD, MOST OF THE WORKS ARE FULL OF ASTUTE AND HUMOROUS ALLUSIONS, MAKING REFERENCE TO ART HISTORY, CITING ROLE MODELS, REFLECTING ON PHILOSOPHICAL CONTENT, AND UNFOLDING THEIR OWN UNIQUE POETRY AS THEY CIRCLE AROUND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN.

IN A WORd, ICONICALLY IRONIC.

The complexity of the works—which, at first glance, is easy to overlook—is also reflected in a characteristic and multi-layered working technique that Schmitt has developed for himself. In a first stage of work, paper is collaged on canvas and then provided with a layer of "muck" consisting primarily of paste and other "additives." Only after this substrate is prepared does the actual pictorial arrangement follow on top of it.

Schmitt explains the inspiration for his special way of working, on the one hand, with his own aspiration to produce large pictures despite the more drawing-based character of his work, leading him to assemble many small details into a larger whole. On the other hand, he has long been fascinated by the floor of his studio, on which bits and pieces of past work are stuck and randomly combine to unfold their very own beauty.

Old master perfection is broken up by street-like presence. The always figurative orientation of the pictures is nevertheless also defined by arabesque line bundles, pattern fragments, or freely drawn abbreviations. Light and dark, beautiful and repulsive, black-andwhite restraint and colorful accents, all these contrasting pairs give Schmitt's works their characteristically tension-laden overall structure.