"Exhibiting You" - Author
Diana Schmertz
City, State: new york, new yorkBorn and raised in New York City, I started painting at Music and Art High School at age 13. After completing my Bachelors in Fine Arts from Purchase College at the age of 19, I was accepted into De Ateliers 63 Residency program and awarded a two-year grant to live and paint in Amsterdam, Holland. Since, I have completed two Masters in Science and have exhibited professionally throughout America. Most recently I have received a Manhattan Community Arts Fund grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and a grant from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance. Currently, I am painting full time in New York City.
In order to promote empathy and "de-objectification" I have created a publication and an ongoing art project entitled PERFECT 8. As opposed to the idealized “perfect 10”, PERFECT 8 forms a new expression conveying a sentiment and recognition of the beauty found within the imperfections of people. Perfect also being defined as “complete of its nature or kind”, lends itself to the view that the individual can only be construed as perfect when all attributes of the whole person are acknowledged. Works on view at Beneath the Skin range from painting to video to the installation of “The Revised Men’s and Women’s Interests Sections”. By provoking a curiosity, and ultimately a questioning of what it would be like to experience the feelings of another, this exhibit works to deconstruct the myth that people are objects and obtainable products.