Kevin Schmidt
Three things that made Black Dog Press acquire this book:
1. Kevin Schmidt is a highly inventive artist, who works in a diverse array of media, in particular photography and video. He has a strong interest in
landscape, music and popular culture and his representations of nature raise discussions around the sublime and the spectacular
2. This is the first book that provides a major overview of the artist’s work
3. This book follows major exhibitions for Kevin at Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver (CAG) and Kamloops Art Gallery in British Columbia (KAG),
Canada
The book came about through our strong working relationship with the CAG, which will probably lead to more publications in the future
Kevin was born in Ottawa, Canada and currently lives and works in Toronto. He spent a long time living in a remote and beautiful part of Kelowna in British Columbia, which has provided great inspiration for his work
Kevin Schmidt's interdisciplinary work tries, tests and ultimately celebrates traditional notions of the sublime in the Canadian landscape. Through intervention, performance-for-camera, photography, video and installation he blurs boundaries of performance, document and product. Central to Schmidt's output are performative expeditions and undertakings in which he pits man-made spectacle; often based on trappings of popular culture, mythology or religion; against Caspar David Friedrich; like visions of nature to play out a humorous, and often absurd, struggle for agency. Schmidt's 2002 video Long Beach Led Zep brought him to international attention. In it, Schmidt enters the picturesque landscape of Long Beach, BC, starts a generator, dons a guitar, and plays a less than seamless rendition of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven; through the works duration, Schmidt vies for attention in direct opposition to his environment. Kevin Schmidt holds a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. He has shown extensively in Canada and abroad, including solo shows at Artspeak, Vancouver's Contemporary Art Gallery, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Presentation House Gallery, Mercer Union and the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal.
