Bio

Steven Schmid is a Bahamian interdisciplinary artist who uses painting, collage and assemblage to explore themes of intersectionality, social and material hierarchies and Bahamian-ness.

Schmid’s current research adopts Hip-Hop production and sampling as a visual practice. He explores the ways laughter, humour and play can disrupt patriarchal norms and imagine more caring, expressive and nuanced representations of Bahamian masculinity.

He has exhibited in several galleries and fairs including Gallery House in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, TERN Gallery in Nassau, The Bahamas, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas and SCOPE Art Fair in Miami, Florida, United States.

Schmid received his BFA in Film, Video and Integrated Media from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2016 and a MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media & Design from Ontario College of Art & Design University in 2022.

He currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Artist Statement

I am looking toward becoming a more open-hearted and generous storyteller.

My current research considers how play, free-styling and immediacy can become evocative and engaging methods of critiquing colonial notions of masculinity. My purpose in this exploration is to envision more expansive forms of “Bahamian-ness” and to contribute to the ever-expanding uniqueness of being Bahamian in the digital age.

Using the figure as a central point of exploration, I want to construct an aesthetic that explores how personal histories, stories, and ideologies can physically exist within a body, while also imagining how a body filled with contradictions may become a site of individualism and decolonial representation.

My work is directly influenced by the ways Hip-Hop producers deconstruct, mesh, combine, slice, chop, stretch, manipulate and repurpose various sounds to make something new. Visually adopting this approach in my practice parallels the improvisation and rigour of Bahamian culture and highlights the unique ways we make the best out of what is immediately around us.