Mathias Schmied is a Franco-Swiss artist born in Bern in 1976. He graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in Lyon and currently lives and works in Paris.
Schmied’s practice has long centered on the act of cutting—through comic strips, vintage pin-up posters, spray-painted paper, and even metal. Through this process, he reveals a second narrative, one that plays on the ambiguity of language and meaning. Cutting becomes a form of drawing, where absence is as significant as presence.
In his series Les Ruines, words initially strike like slogans before unfolding into a more poetic and ambiguous narrative shaped by voids and fragments. The absence itself becomes the subject. Moving beyond the pursuit of technical perfection, Schmied embraces irregularity, using his savoir-faire to create precise visual and conceptual effects.
His intricate compositions convey layered meanings—ranging from melancholia and anger to irony and political tension. Seemingly scattered elements come together to form phrases such as Point de rupture or On the edge of nothing, revealing an underlying structure that challenges initial perceptions of randomness.
Repetition plays a key role in his work. Phrases reappear like spatial illusions, extending beyond their literal meaning and taking on a sculptural presence. Words both reveal and conceal, alternately illuminating and obscuring the image.
Schmied’s work evokes a form of visual poetry—at once violent and lyrical—where shadows, fragments, and empty spaces suggest traces of memory, laughter, and unrest. His compositions transform absence into a powerful expressive force.