Biography
Sabine Maria Schmidt
Art historian, curator and art critic, she currently lives and works in Düsseldorf.
Foto: Egbert Trogemann, 2019
She studied art history, musicology and German language and literature at the University of Münster, received her master’s degree with a monograph on Reiner Ruthenbeck and wrote her doctoral thesis on Eduardo Chillida. Monuments in Public Space (Mainz/Munich 2000). The comprehensive monograph was published in 2000 by Chorus-Verlag Munich. Since then, her connection to Spain and (contemporary) Spanish art has been one of the intrinsic areas of interest in her work.
Since the 1990s, she has regularly published articles and catalogue contributions on 19th and 21st century art with a special focus on historical and contemporary photography, video, film, installation and media art. She is also the editor of numerous exhibition catalogues, monographs and thematic volumes.
She is the (co-)editor of numerous artist monographs, including those on Cristina Lucas, Christoph Faulhaber, Korpys/Löffler, Aernout Mik, Atelier Van Lieshout, Romana Schmalisch, Runa Islam, Yves Netzhammer, Daniele Buetti, Juergen Staack, and Jana Gunstheimer. She has edited several thematic volumes for Kunstforum International: ‘Moderne Reloaded’ (vol. 252), ‘Report. Bilder aus der Wirklichkeit’ (vol. 273) and ‘Textile Revivals’ (vol. 297).
As a curator, she worked at the Kunsthalle Bremen (1997-2000, 2013-2014), the Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg (2000), the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum (2002–2007) and the Museum Folkwang (2007–2012), where she realised thematically complex and extensive museum exhibitions and projects, including the major Nam June Paik retrospective (Bremen 1999), solo exhibitions with Björn Melhus, Romana Schmalisch, Korpys/Löffler, Runa Islam, Yves Netzhammer, Andreas Slominski, Korpys/Löffler, extensive group exhibitions such as Fact/Fiction. Forms of Documentary in Video Art and Film (Oldenburg, 2000), ‘Taktiken des Ego’ (2003), ‘Designing The Truth’ (2006) and ‘Das im Entschwinden Erfaßte’ (2011) , ‘Vom Wert der Kunst als Wert der Arbeit’ (2016), ‘Welt anschauen. Positionen zeitgenössischer Postfotografie und digitaler Bildkulturen’ (Chemnitz, 2024), ‘Collateral Sculptures’ (2025), ‘Marx Global’ (Chemnitz 2025, not realised) and numerous video programmes in Germany and abroad. She also works freelance on various projects.
International interest achieved the exhibitions “Atelier van Lieshout. Cradle to Cradle” (2008 in Essen / 2009 in Moscow), the experimental project “Hacking the City” (Essen, 2010), “Residual. Intervenciones en la ciudad‘ (in Mexico 2010), the extensive retrospective ’Aernout Mik. Communitas‘ (Essen, Paris, Amsterdam 2011/2012) and the exhibition ’Podrobka – The Avant-Garde Never Surrenders” in Gdańsk in 2014 (with artists from Düsseldorf).
She has also curated numerous collection presentations and bigger exhibitions in the field of classical modernism and 19th-century art.
For Chemnitz 2025 European Capital of Culture, she was responsible for the initial concept and establishment of the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff House in Chemnitz, which opened in April 2025. She also curated the sculpture exhibition “Collateral Sculptures” around the Hartmannfabrik, the Welcome-Center of Chemnitz2025, the European Culture Capital.
Sabine Maria Schmidt is a member of AICA, ICOM, IKT and DGPh. From 2017 to 2019, she served as vice-president of the board of AICA Germany on a voluntary basis. In 2026, she was re-elected as vice-president.
As a lecturer, she most recently taught at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences, Bauhaus University Weimar and the University of the Arts in Bremen, focusing on the history of historical photography.
In September 2025, she took over as artistic and institutional director of the Neue Galerie Gladbeck.
C.V. (Short Version)
Art Historian, curator and art critic
Lives and works in Düsseldorf and Gladbeck, Germany
Professional Experience (Short Version)
Since September 2025
Director of the Neue Galerie Gladbeck (Germany)
2019 – 2025
Curator of exhibitions and collection (painting and sculpture 20/21th century), Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
2015 – 2019
Independent Curator and Art Critic
2013 – 2014
Curator of modern and contemporary at Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen,
2012
Independent Curator
2007 – 2011
Curator of Contemporary Art at Museum Folkwang, Essen
2009/2010
Co-Curator of the public art project Residual. Intervenciones artísticas an la ciudad in Mexico City (charged by UNAM, Mexico and Goethe-Institute, Mexico)
2002 – 2007
Curator of Collections and Exhibitons at Wilhelm Lehmbruck Foundation, Duisburg (Department: Painting, Drawing, Photography and New Media of the 20th century)
2002
Staff member of the “Educational Team”, Documenta11 at Kassel
2001
Curator of Time/Space/History, Media Art Exhibition in the context of Otto der Große – Magdeburg und Europa, Kulturhistorisches Museum, Magdeburg
2000
Founding – Curator at Edith-Ruß-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany
Project Curator of Nightdreams/TimeSpaces at the Art Academy of Bremen and the Cathedral in Bremen
11/1999
Exchange Programme Courants in Paris (invitation by the french ministery of culture)
1997 – 1999
Curator at Kunsthalle Bremen
Asssistent curator of the big retrosepectice: Nam June Paik. Fluxus/Video at Kunsthalle Bremen (together with Prof. Wulf Herzogenrath)
1994 – 1997
Journalist for printmedia and radio
Travel Guide for „Studiosus“, Munich
1992- 1994
Curator and Press Officer at Künstlerdorf Schöppingen, NRW (a fellowship residency for artists and writers)
Education (Short Version)
1997 PHD Doctoral Thesis
The public monuments of Eduardo Chillida
(Doctoral Adviser: Prof. Jürg Meyer zur Capellen, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Second Adviser: Prof. Walter Grasskamp) (Grade: Summa cum laude)
1998 Special Award for the Doctoral Thesis from the University of Münster
2000 Publication of the Doctoral Thesis at Chorus-Verlag Munich (with financial support of VG-Wort, Munich)
1994 – 1996 Doctoral Fellowship of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundatio
1994 – 1996 Post-Graduate Research in Spain (based in Barcelona)
1992 M.A. (Magister )
Reiner Ruthenbeck – Issues of his works. A Cataloge of Works (Thesis), Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster
1990 – 02/92
Student research assistant at the Art History Institute of the Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität, Münster
Research and Language Study Courses in Italy (Perugia) and Spain (Santander)
1986 – 1992
Study of Art History, Music History, German Literature and partly Philosophy at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster/ guest student at Universität Bochum