BIOGRAPHY

 

EXHIBITIONS

 

Solo exhibitions

2021    Justice, Freedom & Bread, Rydals Museum, Sweden

2020    Pandemic Spring, PontArte Gallery, Maastricht

2018    / ongoing:The Work of Salts, site specific commission, Salts Mill, Saltaire

2017    /2018: Wonder and Dread, Bradford Industrial Museum, Bradford
2017    Tangled Yarns, People's History Museum, Manchester

2016    Tangled Yarns, Saltaire Arts Trail, Saltaire Village, Yorkshire
2015    Tangled Yarns, Cromford Mills, Derbyshire
2014    Tangled Yarns, William Morris Gallery, London
2012    Alke Schmidt - New Paintings, Penny Fielding Gallery, London
2010    Feeding the Monster, Signal Gallery, London
2009    Witness, Quaker Meeting House Walthamstow, London
2005    Interesting Times, Salon des Arts, London
2004    What's going on, Salon des Arts, London

 

Curating

2019    SWARM: Artists respond to the pollinator crisis, Vestry House Museum, London

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Two/three artists shows/collaborations

2023    Tastbaar/Tangible (with Greet Weitenberg), PontArte Gallery, Maastricht

2012    SPILL (with Della Rees), The Stone Space, London
2006    Notes in the Margin (with Liz Ellis & Cinzia Cremona), Vestry House Museum & William Morris Gallery, London
2002    CRISIS (with Jess Hurd), The Foundry, London

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024   The Tipping Point, Bell House, London

           Textiles Open, No Format Gallery, London

2023   Wintersalon, PontArte, Maastricht

2022   Seed Planting Art, Svalbard Global Seed Vault and Svalbard Museum, Norway 

           Paisley - A Princely Pattern, Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem

2021   HYDRACITY, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London

2019   SWARM: Artists respond to the pollinator crisis, Vestry House Museum, London

2018   Reading Between the Limes, WVWG and Winns Gallery, London

           Inspired by 1968 - Art & Protest, Winns Gallery, London

2017   Threads, Espacio Gallery, London

           Touring exhibition: Selected works from "Second Time Around: The Hubcap as Art", various venues, USA (until 2018)

2016   The Art of Conflict, Gnome House and Inky Cuttlefish, London
          100 x Madonna, Crypt Gallery, London
2015   Misbehaviour, Art Pavillion, London
2014   Second Time Around: The Hubcap as Art, Museum of the Shenndoah Valley, Virginia, USA
           Why War? Freud Museum, London
           Misbehaviour, CMR, Redruth, Cornwall
2013   Summer Show, Penny Fielding Gallery, London
           F.A.M.E., Mulitdisciplinary Art Festival, MS Stubnitz, Canary Wharf docks
           Word on the Street, Pictorem Gallery, London

2012   Five Years of Signaling, Signal Gallery, London
           Lady of the Forest, University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
           It Is Green, Cultivate, London
2011   Dreams, Freud Museum, London
           Natural Histories, Eagle Gallery, London
           The Fishwick Papers, Smokehouse Gallery, London
2010   Inspired by Morris, William Morris Gallery, London
           Arts After Dark, ArtEgg Studios, New Orleans
           Fringe MK Painting Prize, catalogue artist, Milton Keynes
2009   Mixed Signals, Signal Galley, London
           Cut to the Chase! Bargate Monument Gallery, Southampton
           Signature - Works on Paper, artSpace Berlin  
           The Art of Politics, Changing Room Gallery, London
2008   Urban Jungle, exhibition & auction in aid of Trees For Cities, City Hall, London
           Artists Reflect on Climate Change, Friends of the Earth @ Changing Room Gallery, London
           Mixed Blessings, Signal Gallery, London
2007   Climate of Change, Reclaimed venue, London
           T(emporary) A(utonomous) A(rt) London, Reclaimed venue, London
2005   The Art of Love, Gallery @ Oxo Tower, London 
2004   The Sex Show - Penetrating the Sex Industry through a Group Show, Lotus Gallery, Bath 
           Religion, Art and War, Salon des Arts, London

 

COLLECTIONS

 

Maastricht University, The Arkwright Society, Vestry House Museum, City Lit London

 

GRANTS AND AWARDS

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2019   John Ruskin Prize: Longlisted artist

2017   Arts Council England: Grant for development of Wonder and Dread solo exhibition and related engagement events

2016   Culture and Climate Change: Shortlisted artist for: Climate Change in Residence: Future Scenarios

2014   Arts Council England: Grant for development of Tangled Yarns exhibition and related engagement activities

2010   Fringe MK Painting Prize: Shortlisted /catalogue artist

 

MEDIA / PUBLICATIONS

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2020   Maternal Art Magazine, Issue 1- Stay At Home

2019   Uthra Rajgopal, Wonder and Dread: Artist Alke Schmidt Tells Tales from the Global Textile Industry, in: Selvedge Magazine, issue 86, 1/ 2019, p.14

2016   Alke Schmidt, The Politics of the Textile Industry through Time - an Artist's Perpective, in: Industrialisation and Society in Britain: Cromford
          and Beyond in the Era of the Industrial Revolution (Editor: Chris Wrigley)
          Video:  Saltaire Arts Trail 2016: Artists
2015   Rear Window - The Price of Fashion. Documentary filmmaker Leah Borromeo discusses the ethics of the fashion industry with artist
          Alke Schmidt on The World Today with Tariq Ali (video)

 

EDUCATION 

 

2008              The Body Politic: Social & Ecological Justice, Art & Activism, Platform/Birkbeck University
2000 - 2002   MA Fine Art, John Cass School of Art, London 
1998 - 2000   City Lit Fine Art Course, City Lit, London
1990 - 1991   LLM international & environmental law, London School of Economics