Michael Schmeja
Contemporary artist | Australia
Michael Schmeja
Michael Schmeja’s art unfolds at the intersection of geometric precision and expressive spontaneity, creating a compelling visual language that explores the balance—and tension—between structure and emotion. Rooted in abstraction, his work feels deeply human, reflecting the complexities, contradictions, and harmonies of contemporary life.
Schmeja works primarily with oil, acrylic, charcoal, aerosol, and collage on varied surfaces such as paper, canvas, and wood. His process is layered—both physically and conceptually. He often juxtaposes bold geometric forms and architectural lines with gestural, impulsive marks that seem to arise from a more instinctive, emotional space. This interplay creates dynamic tension: order colliding with chaos, control with surrender. His work suggests not just form, but feeling—offering compositions that are at once calculated and visceral.
His visual language draws on the legacies of Constructivism, Abstract Expressionism, and elements of Brutalism, yet his approach is unmistakably contemporary. Though at first glance his work may appear architectural or schematic, closer inspection reveals layers of raw, tactile energy. There is movement, rupture, and a subtle emotional undercurrent that challenges the stillness of form. His compositions often evoke imagined cityscapes, deconstructed structures, or inner psychological terrains—spaces that feel both familiar and disoriented.
Central to Schmeja’s practice is the idea of duality: The technological design versus the natural design, intellect and impulse, construction and deconstruction. His work becomes a metaphor for the human condition—layered, conflicted, evolving. While non-representational, the shifts in tone and texture feel autobiographical.
In an era of digital precision and visual saturation, Schmeja’s work reclaims the value of ambiguity and imperfection. These are not decorative objects, but living, breathing environments that invite engagement. His pieces tell stories, and they ask questions. They resist passive interpretation and encourage viewers to look again, and to find meaning in what isn’t immediately revealed.
Michael Schmeja is not simply creating abstract art—he is composing spaces of tension and resolution, offering a poetic reflection of how we navigate a fragmented and unfinished world.
Education
1999 – 2000 Diploma of Visual Art, Painting
Chisolm Institute of TAFE, Melbourne, Australia
2001 – 2003 Bachelor of Fine Art, Drawing
Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia
2006 Graduate Diploma of Education, Art
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Trace Elements
Bloom Gallery, Valencia, Spain
2018 Los Bocetos del Carmen
Black Cat Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2015 The time has come
Southern Buoy Studios, Mornington, Australia
2011 Recent Work
Southern Buoy Studios, Mornington, Australia
2009 A Season. A Reason. A Lifetime
Off the Kerb Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2008 The Sorting of Files. Drawing from Memory
Upstairs Flinders Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2007 Automatter
Upstairs Flinders Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2006 Automatta
69 Smith Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2003 In Unity there is Diversity
69 Smith Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2001 Seeing Through Closed Eyes
69 Smith Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Group Exhibitions
2024 What Remains
Bloom Gallery, Valencia, Spain
2024 La Instalació
Bloom Gallery, Valencia, Spain
2024 Surface Tension II
Galeria Pitijopos, Cadiz, Spain
2023 Surface Tension
Bloom Gallery, Valencia, Spain
2023 Juxtaposing the Random
Bloom Gallery, Valencia, Spain
2023 A Chance of Change
Bloom Gallery, Valencia, Spain
2019 Un – Earth
Southern Buoy Studios, Mornington, Australia
2016 Southern Buoy Portraiture Pirze & Exhibition
Southern Buoy Studios, Mornington, Australia
2010 Blender Studios Exhibition
Blender Studios, Melbourne, Australia
2006 Loose
69 Smith Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2005 Tangency
Oakhill Gallery, Mornington, Australia
2003 Nude/Naked
69 Smith Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2003 Segue
Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2003 Drawing Department Annual Exhibition
Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
2002 Proud Annual Exhibition
Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2002 Drawing Department Annual Exhibition
Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2001 Proud Annual Exhibition
Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Awards & Competitions
2025 Finalist - XXIV National Painting Prize for Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos
Valencia, Spain
2025 Finalist – Tartget Prize, Madrid, Spain
2024 Finalist - VII Certamen National de Pintura, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain
2021 Finalist - XXXIX CERTAMEN NACIONAL PINTURA CASTILLO DE SAN FERNANDO CASTLE
Castilla La Mancha, Spain
2021 Finalist - XLII PREMIO GREDOS DE PINTURA 42
Avila, Spain
2007 Finalist - Agendo Annual Contemporary Art award
Gardner Galleries, Melbourne, Australia
2003 Winner – The Tolarno Hotel Annual Art Award
Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia
History
Melbourne born Michael Schmeja was well aware from a young age that he was an artist. After a Diploma of Visual Art in 2000, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Art, majoring in Drawing, at The Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Michael has continuously proven to be a passionate, hardworking and exhibiting artist.
The vibrantly creative city of Melbourne is where Michael developed as an artist, creating and exhibiting works that were, and continue to be, based on the abstract. Oil, acrylic and mixed media are his primary means of expression. Michael has always had a passion for both natural (often figurative) and architectural forms, which he utilizes in his continuously developing style of multi-layered abstraction.
During three years at Blender Studios (Melbourne), working among influential, local urban artists, Michael became heavily influenced by Melbourne’s dynamic street art scene. It was the imagery of work over work, line over line that attracted him to this growing, creative epidemic in the city.
Upon arrival in Valencia in 2016, again he found himself working in an influential studio space - this time, alongside Spanish, and other European fine artists and urban artists.
Michael continues to live and create in Valencia, with regular visits to his home and studio in Melbourne.
