Hubert Schmalix was born in Graz, Austria, on 17 December 1952 and studied at the Vienna Art Academy from 1971 to 1976. By 1979 Schmalix was showing work at the forward-looking exhibition 'Europa 79 - Kunst der 80er Jahre' in Stuttgart. In 1983 the London Tate Gallery invited Schmalix to present work at 'New Art', an important survey of contemporary art. Schmalix has become well-known world-wide as an exponent of 'New Art', working with a retrospective glance at both classical art history and modern art. Schmalix focuses on the world of things and the human figure. Although the expressive gesture was the dominant feature of his 1980s work, it yielded early in the 1990s to stringent tectonic composition. In 1984 Hubert Schmalix went to the Philippines and on to the US, moving to Los Angeles in 1987. In 1986/87 Schmalix taught at the Academy for the Decorative and Applied Arts in Vienna and from 1997 he has been a professor at the Vienna Art Academy. Schmalix has had several stints as a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1993 Schmalix showed work, not for the first time, at the Venice Biennale. In 1998 he was awarded the Fine Art Prize of the City of Vienna. Schmalix has done several large fresco cycles in Salzburg and his work has been shown internationally at solo and group shows.