Short Bio

Linda Friedman Schmidt is a self-taught, German-born American artist best known for her emotional narrative portraits created from discarded clothing. She was born stateless in a displaced persons camp, the first child of Holocaust survivors who discouraged her interest in art. Her powerful artwork explores and expands the medium of textiles in new and exciting ways. She boldly pushes the boundaries, pushes the limits of materials, techniques, and concepts and captures the human experience in an original and authentic voice. In a time when artificial intelligence is gradually replacing work by humans, her handmade textiles are more important than ever.

Linda’s art has been shown internationally and throughout the United States in group shows at the American Folk Art Museum, Allentown Art Museum, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Morris Museum, Jersey City Museum, New Jersey State Museum, Montclair Art Museum, Monmouth Museum, Noyes Museum of Art, Attleboro Art Museum, Alexandria Museum of Art, Koehnline Museum of Art, Loveland Museum, Cahoon Museum of American Art, Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles among others. Her work has been featured in multiple shows at the Untitled Space Gallery, New York City including the REBEL Exhibition and published in the Untitled Magazine’s 10th Anniversary Collector’s Issue. She has had solo shows at the Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum, and Pascal Gallery at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Internationally her work has been exhibited in the UK, Japan, Portugal, and Argentina. Her work has been selected for exhibition by prestigious curators Judy Chicago, Faith Ringgold, Anne Umland, renowned art critic Donald Kuspit, and numerous others. Linda’s work has been reviewed in Hyperallergic and has been featured in international textile magazines Textiel Plus and Mr X Stitch. She has been profiled in Interlocutor Magazine and Living Artists Magazine among others. Linda’s work has been published in books Natural Impressions, Dress [with] Sense: The Practical Guide to a Conscious Closet, The Art of Mothering: Our Lives in Colour and Shadow, Fiberarts Design Book 7, Contemporary Hooked Art: Themes and Memories, Not Normal: Art in the Age of Trump, and various others. Her work is held in notable private collections. She is the subject of a 2017 short documentary film Under Her Skin: Linda Friedman Schmidt directed by Kelsey and Rémy Bennett. In 2023 she received an Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.