Influenced by the centuries-old tradition European tradition of depicting the human figure, Inge H. Schmidt is best known as a painter and drawer of 'Heads' with an expressively charged realism. The 'heads' are mostly portraits of unknown people. As a passionate traveller, she is inspired by encounters with people in remote parts of the world. The backpack journeys with paint and sketch block have taken her to Eurasia (Tajikistan, Tuva, Khakassia, Buriata, Kirgizia and Xinjiang (western China), but also to territories in South East Asia and Latin America. With her particular feel for colour and remarkable brushwork, she succeeds in capturing the universality of human beings within indeterminate spaces. Besides her 'Heads', she also paints human figures, landscapes and still lifes in her distinctive expressionistic, gestural and colourful style.
Inge H. Schmidt (born 1952, Wiehe, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. She completed her MA in Art History and Germanics in 1977 at the University of Leipzig before undertaking a Painting and Graphic Arts Degree at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle, graduating in 1983. In 1984 she emigrated from East Germany to West Berlin and studied painting at the Berlin University of the Arts until 1988.
Recent international solo exhibitions include Colours of Life, United Nations, New York, USA (2016); Colours of Life, Brothers of Fine Art Gallery, Marfa, USA (2016); Inspiration Desert, Bismarck Art Gallery, Marfa, USA (2015 ) and Colours of Life, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan (2013). Solo and group exhibitions were held in Germany, USA, Azerbaijan, Poland, France, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain, South Korea and Georgia. Since 1994 she is a guest professor and lecturer at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Baku, Azerbaijan and at the HTK Academy Berlin, the University of the Arts Berlin, the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and at Potsdam University. In 2012 she was granted an honorary doctorate at the State Academy of Fine Arts of Baku, Azerbaijan.