Randall Schmit (b.1955) is an American artist of Dutch descent, best-known for his expressive gesture, abstract form and use of comic imagery to arrive at a juncture of surreal graphic novel and biomorphic expressionist painting. The artist attributes his interest in surrealism to an early fascination with Arshile Gorky, later followed with travel to Cuba, where he studied first-hand, master surrealist works by Wifredo Lam at Havana’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. At once graphic and expressive, Schmit’s work packs secular and mythical images inside ambiguous spaces, offering several stories within each panel to create situational space within the allegorical paintings.

After graduating with an MFA in painting from Texas A&M University, the artist apprenticed with second-generation abstract expressionist and noted colorist, Ray Parker, in Manhattan, NY.

In 2000, a selection of the artist's collages were shown at a gallery in Istanbul, where he also traveled to lecture at the U.S. Embassy. The Byzantine art and architecture there affected the imagery of his subsequent work: the compositions influenced internal scale- relations of the figures, while the Oriental architecture enhanced the fantastic nature of the paintings.

Schmit has exhibited his paintings internationally for forty years. During the 1980’s–early 2000’s, he exhibited in solo and group shows throughout New York and New Orleans. He is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Individual Artist Grant (2017), and Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Artist Grants (2011 and 2014).

Schmit’s work is included in permanent collections of several museums, including TheMet/Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY); New Orleans Museum of Art; Frederick R. Weisman Foundation (Malibu); and MoCA/Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL among others.

While his early years were spent in California, Louisiana, and Manhattan, the artist currently lives and works in the Hudson Valley of New York.