Naomi Middelmann

Education
1995 Bachelor of Arts, The Johns Hopkins University, USA
2002-2004 Ecole Supérieure de Création et Vitrail, Monthey, CH
2009 Postgraduate degree the Visual Art School, Basel, CH

Solo Exhibits
2008 Mercerie 12, Lausanne, CH
2010 Edipresse, Lausanne, CH
2011 Gallery Arcane, Corcelles CH
2011 Gallery Pré-du-Marché, Lausanne CH
2012 Galerie Edouard Roch, Ballens CH
2013 Gallery SpaceStation, Lausanne CH
2013 Gallery Arcane, Corcelles (NE), CH
2014 Gallery Edouard Roch, CH
2014 EPFL, Lausanne, CH
2016 Vanderbilt Brain Institute, (exhibit and symposium) USA

Group Exhibits
2009 Lumen Center, Crissier, CH
2009 Assenza, Münchenstein, CH
2011 Xanadu Gallery, Scottsdale, USA
2012 Gallery Espace Aurore, CH
2012 JayKay Gallery, Carrouge, CH
2012 “International Drawing 2012”, The Swiss Art Space Gallery, CH
2013 Gallery Edouard Roch, “30 year anniversary”, CH
2015 « Displaced » Node Gallery, Helsinki, FI
2015 Créavie, Colombier CH
2015 Galerie Edouard Roch, Ballens CH
2015 EPFL, Lausanne, CH
2015 “Swiss Contemporary Abstract” Gallery Rossi, Geneva, CH

Art Fairs
2015 Art Contemporaries special project of Art Athina, Grèce
2015 Art Vilnius, Lithuania
2015 CAR (Contemporary art Ruhr, Germany
2015 Paratissima, Torino Art fair, Italy

Participant in the annual Aperti art event in Switzerland since 2010

Acquisitions
In various private collectors in Switzerland, Europe and the USA and in the permanent collection of the EPFL, the Gallery Roch and Gallery Arcane

Scholarships and Prizes
1990-1991 Scholarship for academic achievement, Hackley, New York
1991 Graduated with High Honours from Hackley
1991-1995 Samuel Eldridge Scholarship for Outstanding Academic
Achievement, Johns Hopkins University
2012 Scope Miami art fair Digital billboard winner
2013 “New this week” Saatchi Arts collection
2014 “Neutral abstracts collection” Spring collection of Saatchi arts
2014 “Inspired by Cy Twombly collection” Saatchi Arts
2014 “Neutral abstracts collection” Fall collection of Saatchi arts
2015 “New this week, Saatchi Arts collection
2015 “ TINA” Prize finalist
2015 Saatchi art-prize semi-finalist

Publications, Catalogues, Media coverage
2012 Journal La liberté, Switzerland
2012 Catalogue « Art takes Miami», USA
2012 Drawing 2012, catalogue, Place des Arts, Switzerland
2013 Journal de Moudon, Switzerland
2013 24 heures, Switzerland
2014 Flash magazine, CH
2015 Article and image on Aperti, CH
2015 Cover art for November issue Neuropsychologia
2015 Art Reveal magazine (5 page feature)

Member of the Swiss artist association, Visarte, and committee member of APERTI


Portfolio:

Reclaim:

“We fill pre-existing forms and when we fill them we change them and are changed." Borges and I, Frank Bidart

Middelmann turned to the visual arts to explore means of expression beyond language. She refuses to restrict herself to a single technique or material. She works with bitumen, ash, oil paint, acrylic, charcoal, collage, sand, coffee, dirt, paper, canvas, wire, recycled materials, etc. Her artwork is raw and necessarily expressive. She enjoys the direct physical contact with the material. Her process is one of building up and tearing away, seeking most importantly an authentic expression of an experience that exists beyond words.

Her current work is called "reclaim", meaning to restore to a previous natural state, to rescue or salvage, or to take back or to repossess. She is exploring sculpture using her school textbooks and notebooks, old canvases, and other salvaged materials.

With her interest in perception and its ambiguity, she is actively collaborating and designing research projects with various leading neuroscientists at leading universities in the USA, Germany and Switzerland.

In 5 years, her work has been shown in over 30 exhibits and art fairs in Switzerland, Germany, Finland and Greece. She is a member of the Swiss Artist Association, VISARTE.

Born in Switzerland, Middelmann moved to New York in 1989. After earning a degree in Creative writing and International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University, she worked in publishing in New York. In 2002, she moved back to Switzerland and studied first stained glass at the Ecole Supérieure de Création et de Vitrail in Monthey and then earned a visual art degree from the Visual Art School in Basel in 2009.

She currently lives and works in Lausanne, Switzerland.