Biography
Born in Bad Mergentheim in 1970, the artist studied communication design at the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden. In 1995, he received a scholarship to attend Markus Lüpertz's master class in Kloster Irrsee in Allgäu. This was followed by study visits abroad and professorships at the universities of Bolzano and Mainz. In addition to large-scale canvases and photographic works, Holger Schmidhuber has been concentrating on the 'Carpets of the forgotten' series of works since 2015. The artist paints on oriental carpets, on 'forgotten carpets' and raises these furnishing objects, which were considered status symbols in the past and still are today, to a new level. A single word or a short slogan usually appears in the centre in coloured capitals, applied to the front of the carpet with the help of stencils. Around it, a wild network of colour splashes and streaks, traces and sprayed colour clouds relaxes, appearing in sharp contrast to the static of the word blocks. Schmidhuber has developed special colours for his carpet messages that lay down on the textile surface and remain pliable if the carpet should be rolled up. The messages target existential themes such as 'Love', 'Truth', 'Revolution', 'Inner World' or 'Freedom' and assert themselves equally in their central position on the carpet against the energetically applied, gestural forms and colours.
