Patrick has always had a passion for the arts including music, dance, theatre, written and visual. From an early age he knew he wanted to surround himself with creatives. While in school he dabbled in all forms of the arts but fell in love with painting. Specifically, abstraction. Through abstraction he could express thought/ideas/feelings without the encumbrance of observable objects.Scmidt began exploring identity using wallpaper and fabric patterns inspired by the Pattern and Decoration movement from the 1970’s. He layered and juxtaposed patterns next to and on top of one another in pursuit of how he perceived his own identity. Gaining access to photo manipulation software, he digitized the hundreds of patterns he had collected. By layering these newly adapted images a new visual language of shape, color and hard edge emerged. During the pandemic Patrick once again went to Photoshop and manipulated his older work to find new compositions, and approaches to color and perception. These new paintings emphasize hard-edged, shapes with subtle politically charged color, and false transparent shapes (circle) that are rooted in geometric abstraction and the Buddhist concept of the Dharma Wheel. This concept places focus where the circle becomes a place of mindful meditation through optical transparency. Patrick’s current work plays with the addition of graffiti writing or tagging within the geometric structure.
Patrick has been a Professor of Art at Washington & Jefferson College for 20+ years. Currently he teaches painting, drawing, and design. Schmidt has had the opportunity to have exhibited his work in Los Angeles, New York City, Washington DC, Kansas City, Florence and Cosenza Italy and Budapest, Hungary. Patrick is represented by 33 Contemporary, Lake Worth, FL , Thomas Punzmann Contemporary in Frankfurt Germany, White Room Gallery, in East Hampton. He has also shown with Baker Howard Contemporary in London and the Todd Weiner Gallery in Kansas City, MO. He has attended residencies at Box of Contemporary Space in Cosenza, Italy, and Chateau Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France, and Studio Faire in Nerac, France.
