ARC Fine Art is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, Topos, a collection of paintings and works on paper by Bastienne Schmidt. The exhibition will open with an Artist's Reception on Saturday, September 10, 2011 from 5 to 8 pm and will be on view until Friday, October 7th. Bastienne Schmidt is a mixed-media artist who was born in Germany, raised in Greece and Italy and has lived in New York for the past 20 years. Schmidt is now based in Bridgehampton, New York on the East End of Long Island. Included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the Brooklyn Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Biblioteque Nationale, her work has been featured nationally and internationally in over 50 exhibitions. Schmidt has published four monographs, among them Vivir la Muerte, American Dreams, ShadowHome and Home Stills. ShadowHome was awarded The Best Photo Book Prize in Germany in 2005. Her latest monograph, Home Stills, was published in 2010. Working with large-scale drawings, film stills, and photography, that body of work depicts an ironic view on female gender roles and was shown in a solo exhibition at the Southeast Museum of Photography in Florida and will travel to Houston in the spring of 2012. The body of work on view has been titled Topos, which derives from the Greek word, τοπος, which translates as "place". Produced over the last 2 years, this collection of paintings and works on paper illustrates Schmidt's investigation of topography and maps, as she explores the concept of place, both traveled and imagined. While several large scale, mixed-media paintings and a group of more intimate variations on panel clearly reference the grid of a city or the meandering lines of a village, others, like Orange Topos and Blue Topos with Flowers are far more whimsical and playful with their layerings of fabric, brightened palette, and imagery of the natural world. Topos Mountain Flower incorporates both the winding lines of a map as well as a central mirrored image of a mountain, which upon first glance resembles a shell. Seemingly random and spontaneous, these mixed-media paintings evolve from layers of subtle subtexts, which work together to create distinct compositions. The artist writes of this work: "I created these maps, taking pieces of information from maps from existing countries interpreting a world that is not defined by precise delineation of border lines between countries but is a concept of the mind." Presented alongside these mixed-media paintings are a pair of turquoise paper cut-outs, two watery abstractions of the sea, and a collection of delicate watercolors of vessels. Blue prevails as the predominate hue throughout these works on paper, in which quiet washes of light blues meld with deep, rich tones. It is impossible to imagine that Schmidt's natural surroundings don't inspire her artistic output, be it the East End of Long Island or the azure waters of Greece, where she spends a month each summer. For additional information on Bastienne Schmidt or for a complete viewing of the work on view, please visit the gallery website at www.arcfineartllc.com. The gallery is located at 3113 Bronson Road in Fairfield, Connecticut and is open Tuesdays and Fridays from 10am to 5pm. Further inquiries, please contact Adrienne Ruger Conzelman at 203 895 9595. All images on this site © the Artists. Reproduction of images is prohibited without written permission.