BEYOND NATURE

Text by Lucile Bacon

The contemplation of Nature always leads to a unique and wonderful experience. It shapes our present, inspires our future. The landscapes I observe, rich and vigorous, gradually invade my sight, certain details catch my attention. I then dive into an unexpected experience, where the familiar and the unknown coexist, where the sublime and the strange overlap...

Arny Schmit, a Luxembourgish artist with multiple talents, captivates with his inexhaustible creativity and his ability to merge different mediums to create unique works. Arny Schmit is interested in landscapes, in Nature. Born on a farm, he grew up working the land; in harmony with flora and fauna. This connection remains deeply rooted in him and intuitively leads him to make Nature the protagonist of his work.

In his daily life, he explores landscapes. When one of them catches his attention, moves him, he captures it in photography. Accumulating these treasures, Arny Schmit creates his own library, a sensitive inventory of the Nature that surrounds him.

Then, like an architect, he builds his own landscapes. Far from the postcard, his visions of Nature must be expressive, abundant, dense and bring out deep emotions. A detail of the landscape catches the artist's eye, resonates within him, and he begins to assemble, cut, add, remove. Thus, he creates these mysteriously strange landscapes, inspired by a multitude of realities but born from a boundless imagination.

For Arny Schmit, Nature, an inexhaustible source of creation, becomes a symbol through which he constantly renews himself. His work stands out for its ability to transcend the boundaries between traditional painting and new forms of expression.

His creations are a captivating blend of painting, sculpture, and installation. This artistic convergence allows him to explore the complex theme of the relationship between Nature and Humanity with distinct contrasts.

Expressed through this variety of tactile mediums, Arny Schmit's representations evoke a realm beyond our three-dimensional reality, where figuration and abstraction interweave.

Painting, which the artist worked on for years, is no longer enough for him. Something is missing, holding him back. He wants to go further, deeper in his pictorial research. It is by facing this obstacle and relentlessly seeking to overcome it that Arny Schmit takes us on an experience that goes far beyond the flatness of the canvas.

Arny Schmit develops his first painting-objects, sort of three-dimensional collages combining different elements: wooden crates, LED lights, fabrics, details of tapestry... He thus brings unexpected details into his landscapes. Within his organic settings, these new components appear as a rupture. Geometric lines break through the vegetation, elements emerge from the painting, artificial lights disrupt the foliage. A rationality that contrasts our horizon and highlights even more the omnipresence of Nature.

"I felt like something was missing. I wanted to go further. The characters became the central element of the painting when they were just a detail."

The human presence, previously represented figuratively in Arny Schmit's paintings, fades away to leave only a simple trace, recalling a kind of discreet presence. We are transported out of time, what are we observing? Artefacts of a bygone glory, a futuristic vision where Nature has regained its rights, or a mystical coexistence between the world we have built and the one that created us?

These seemingly contradictory elements allow the artist to go further, to open up new horizons. Through these resistances, Arny Schmit finds new paths, new strings to resonate.

As we approach Arny Schmit's painting-objects, we are struck by the shapes and movements on the surface of the canvas. The materiality is different from what one might have expected. One of the most striking characteristics of Arny Schmit's work is his mastery of color and texture. Having started with painting, he gradually pushes the boundaries of this technique. His pieces come to life through vibrant hues and sensitive compositions. Through his manipulation of materials, the artist creates a deep visual interaction that invites reflection.

Paint, traditionally applied with a brush, is disrupted. Arny Schmit partially reverses this process by applying thick layers of material in some areas and then removing them. In a process that is rapid and varied in pressure and tools used, he creates these organic forms that are so representative of his work.

Arny Schmit's works thus oscillate between abstract geometry and organic reality. The aesthetic experiences of Arny Schmit are made possible by the existence of these resistances, whose responses are limitless. Wild nature and artifacts, organic and geometric forms, absence and presence of matter: it is these contrasts, these opposites, that push the artist to surpass himself and that make the power of his works.

When standing in front of one of his painting-objects, we are immediately struck by these resistances. These strangely dreamlike landscapes inundate us with sensory stimuli and draw us into the depths of the mind, into this supernatural universe that offers a plastic and physical experience.

Arny Schmit's work embodies unbridled creativity in constant search of surpassing oneself. His work transcends the boundaries of traditional mediums while addressing deeply current themes, inviting each one to question, feel, and reflect through his aesthetics.

Arny Schmit makes Nature the protagonist in a world where the whispers of Man try to find a place. Through this space, new aesthetic experiences constantly emerge that cannot be expressed in words, and of which we are privileged witnesses.