There is Always a Way Forwards, 2026

My works is still centred around the exploration of the interaction of colour, very much in the spirit of Joseph Albers, but, recently, I decided to abandon the strict horizontal / vertical grid, as well as the carefully planned sketches my works used to be based on. The brushstrokes are placed more freely now, and I start the works with a vague idea of the partitions of the canvas and colour zones, marking the first few ‘territories’ with the brush, and then developing the layers from there. The process is more dynamic than before, in the sense that each brushstroke develops from the previous one, as opposed to the initial method of reproducing a sketch. However, the word dynamic might suggest ‘speed’, but speed is completely absent in the process. A studio session might consist of very long times of staring at the canvas, picturing all the different possibilities for the next brushstroke, followed by very long times of mixing and testing a particular shade of colour. In some sessions, I might not even place a brushstroke at all. But, in the next session, if manage to hit just the right shade in the mixing and testing process, I might place brushstrokes on multiple canvases. These brushstrokes will open up the next set of question marks- and the ‘staring at the canvases’, picturing the possibilities, starts all over again. Often, after finishing a studio session, I leave little notes next to the canvases, recording the possible future brushstrokes I ‘saw’ in that session.

Stefanie Schulte is a German-born Australian artist and educator based in Jerrabomberra, near Canberra. Trained in Spain, she holds a Bachelor, Masters and Doctors Degree in Visual Arts, as well as a Master of Secondary Teaching. She first established her career as an award-winning sculptor, exhibiting in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. She stopped her creative career to focus on her young family and after relocating to Australia in 2015, she reconnected with it. Inspired by the light and colour of the Australian landscape, she shifted her focus to painting. Her abstract works explore colour, structure and spatial relationships through layered compositions that balance architectural order with organic development.

Studio Artist at M16 Art Space:
Studio 19, 21 Blaxland Crescent, 2603 Canberra, ACT, Australia

Awards:
(Sculptures)
– Kunstförderpreis Neuss, Germany, 2000
– annual arts awards of the town of Ayllón, Spain, 2000.
(paintings)
– shortlisted: Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, 2022
– shortlisted: Hornsby Art Prize, Wallarobba Arts Centre, Sydney, 2023
– shortlisted: Goulburn Art Award, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, 2024

Selection of most recent solo exhibitions
–  “Architektur der Fläche”, German Embassy, Canberra, 2017
–  “Orange Wasn’t Invited to the Party”, The Grainger Gallery, Canberra, 2021 
 –  “Vivaldi’s Seasons”, ANCA Gallery, Canberra, 2022 
 –  “Colour Experiments”, Five Walls Gallery, Melbourne, 2023 
 –  “Carefully Planned Intuition”, Five Walls Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
– Foyer Exhibition, M16 ArtSpace, Canberra, 2026

Selection of most recent group exhibitions
–  “Art Circle Residence”, German Residence, Stockholm, Sweden, 2020 
 –  “Retrospective of Past Recipients of the Kunstförderpreis Award”, Town Hall,
Neuss, Germany, 2021 
 –  Finalist’s Exhibition “Fisher’s Ghost Art Award”, Campbelltown Arts Centre,
Sydney, 2022 
 –  “Volume Up – Artists Responding to Music and Sound”, curated by Monica King,
The Painting Center, Manhattan, New York, USA, 2023 
 –  Finalist’s Exhibition “Hornsby Art Prize”, Wallarobba Arts Centre, Sydney, 2023 
 –  Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions, Justin Art House Museum “JAHM”, Melbourne,
2024 
 –  “mono.poly.chromes”, curated by Misuzu Ueda and Aaron Martin, Five Walls
Gallery, Melbourne, 2024 
 –  “Converge – 9th Benefit Exhibition”, curated by Bridgette Mayer, Bridgette Mayer
Gallery, Philadelphia, USA, 2024 
 –  Finalist’s Exhibition “Goulburn Art Award”, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, 2024
–  Inaugural Exhibition of Civic Art Bureau, Canberra, 2024
– “40 x 40”, Anniversary Exhibition of the M16 ArtSpace, Canberra, 2025
– “The Quiet Between”, Group Show curated by Eason Lin, M16 ArtSpace, Canberra, 2026