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Saturday 29 March 2025
Open 9:00am - 1:00pm

Neural Architecture

1 August - 14 September 2025

Neural Architecture

Geoffrey Schmidt
Umbrella

Geoffrey Schmidt, Neural Architecture N08, 2025, Oil paint on aluminium, string and rocks, 60cm x 60cm panel with installation of variable dimensions. Photograph: Geoffrey Schmidt; edits by Daniel Qualischefski. 

Geoffrey Schmidt has an ongoing interest in the human condition, emotional and vulnerable behaviors, meditations on awareness and impermanence, and the disconnect between reality and the mind. He uses visual communication to navigate the complexities of existence and to find meaning amidst the ever-shifting landscape of context and interpretation. For the artist, memory also serves as a pathway that bridges the past and present to the future. Memory therefore connects us to significant moments, relationships, and sensory experiences.

Neural Architecture is a visual mapping of such memory, expressed through intricately composed collections of blocks of black colour, strings and rocks. These maps lead nowhere, and cannot be used to direct or accurately record. They are maps with no answer or question, no measured units or topography; maps that can only imply an idea and suggest a philosophy or way of looking; maps that combine the individual and the collective; maps that then mutate into the unknowable.

Geoffrey Schmidt is a conceptual artist based on the Cassowary Coast in Far North QLD. After completing a Degree in Fine Art at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University (1987), Schmidt spent ten years working in performance art and presenting work around Australia, including at the Institute of Modern Art, Artspace, Canberra Contemporary Art Space and Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. His art practice has since shifted over the past three decades as a necessary response to personal circumstances. Schmidt has experienced a series of four debilitating heart attacks and battles with depression and anxiety. His work has evolved into primarily two-dimensional realms (painting and digital drawings), however his latest series is more architectonic. Schmidt lives with his partner of almost 30 years, and describes himself as a gay man, a Buddhist, a bit of a recluse and a lover of German synth pop music.

Also on display during this period

All Exhibitions
1 August -
14 September 2025
Open Hours

Tues - Fri: 9am-5pm

Sat - Sun: 9am-1pm

Gallery closed Mondays, public holidays and during exhibition install weeks.

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Contact

(07) 4772 7109

408 Flinders Street,
Gurambilbarra (Townsville),
Qld, 4810 Australia

PO Box 2394,
Gurambilbarra (Townsville),
Qld, 4810 Australia

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Acknowledgement of Country

Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts respectfully acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun and the surrounding groups of our region - Bindal, Gugu Badhan, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Bandjin and Gudjal - as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, share and celebrate local creative practice. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia. They have never ceded sovereignty and remain strong in their enduring connection to land and Culture.

Umbrella is a Member & Signatory of the Indigenous Art Code. This means we are committed to fair and ethical trade with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and transparency in the promotion and sale of artwork. As a Dealer Member and signatory to the Code we must act fairly, honestly, professionally and in good conscience in all direct or indirect dealings with artists.

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Acknowledgements

Umbrella is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy, and by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, state and territory governments. | Umbrella is supported by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. | Townsville City Council is a funding partner of Umbrella's program.