David Schmitt The Power Of Why Not For Sale

About this work

David Schmitt's "The Power Of Why Not" presents a commanding figurative composition that pulses with the artist's characteristic tension between vulnerability and defiance. The mixed media surface builds layers of visual complexity, where gestural brushwork collides with textured interventions that give the canvas an almost archaeological depth. A central figure emerges from this layered ground, rendered with Schmitt's distinctive approach to the human form—simultaneously grounded in classical figuration yet disrupted by contemporary mark-making that refuses easy resolution. The color palette operates in service of emotional weight, with passages of saturated hue breaking through more muted, worked-over zones. This interplay creates a visual rhythm that mirrors the work's titular provocation—the question itself becomes a kind of permission, a breaking through of barriers both psychological and pictorial. The figure's posture and gaze communicate an internal reckoning, that suspended moment before action when possibility overtakes hesitation. Within Schmitt's broader practice, this work exemplifies his ongoing investigation into human agency and the stories we tell ourselves about our own limitations. His figures consistently occupy spaces of transformation, caught between states of being. The mixed media approach allows for a material honesty—corrections remain visible, pentimenti become part of the narrative, and the painting's history of making parallels the emotional archaeology of self-discovery. At Guy Hepner, this piece joins a program committed to figurative work that speaks to contemporary experience without abandoning painterly tradition. "The Power Of Why Not" represents a significant opportunity to acquire a work that embodies both technical mastery and genuine emotional inquiry.