Alex Schmidt
Lecturer of Painting and Drawing
Alex Schmidt is a Lecturer of Painting + Drawing at SUNY Purchase. Schmidt holds a BA in Art History from Reed College (2009) and an MFA from Hunter College (2023), as a SPCUNY Actionist Fellow with support from the Mellon Foundation (2022) and a Ruth Stanton Scholar (2020-2023). Schmidt is a Whitney ISP Elaine G. Weitzen Studio Program Fellow (2024-2025).
More About Me
Using improvisation, humor, and relationality, Schmidt fondles fault lines between performance (figure modeling, live performance, and performance for video), social engagement (audience participation, pedagogical projects), text (scripts, songs, and books), and painting. These forms infest one another, coalescing into a holistic work that is conceptually concerned with the paradox of choice, the precarity of the gig economy, and social connection as a conduit for change.
Schmidt has held solo exhibitions and performances at OLYMPIA, Leslie-Lohman Museum, and 21st Street Projects for Critical Practices Inc. They have performed at MoMA PS1, the Kitchen, BOFFO, Essex Flowers, Abrons Art Center, and PERFORMA, among others. Schmidt co-founded Dyke Soccer (2018) and was a SU-CASA Artist-in-Residence (2018 + 2019). Their work has been featured in the New Yorker, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Dazed, Office, them, Paper, New York Magazine, and The Guardian.
Representative Courses
Queer Strategies
Experimental Drawing