Biography
Erik Schmitt's work explores the landscape of human communication, from cryptic urban markings to marginalia within books. His concept-driven practice merges his design background with meticulous archival methodologies, investigating overlooked subjects with cultural resonance through the documentation of traces left by human interaction. He is fascinated by these forms of expression and their role in our attempts to understand and order our surroundings.
Schmitt's major projects include The Pages Project, an ongoing exploration of marginalia begun in 2007. The digital archive garnered coverage from El País, The New Yorker, The Global Digital Citizen Foundation, and Fast Company, and will be published as a 320-page volume by Slanted Publishing in 2026. His publication Roman Epigraphy emerged from a 2022 residency at The American Academy in Rome, where he walked the city's roads and piazzas documenting contemporary inscriptions, carefully drawing each example and recording its coordinates. The resulting publication explores the contemporary layer of communication that rests upon the city's surface and gives voice to the everyday Romans and visitors who have left their mark upon the city.
From lithography to digital printing, and from guerrilla public interventions to intimate artists' books, Schmitt explores form and structure as vehicles for meaning. His work reveals hidden patterns, relationships, and cultural narratives embedded in place, text, and image.
Recent residencies include the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and The American Academy in Rome. Schmitt's work has been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle, CBS National News, El País, and The New Yorker. His work is held in collections at the Center for Fine Art Photography, Yale's Haas Family Arts Library, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Letterform Archive, Kunstbibliothek, Franklin Furnace Archive, Stanford University Rare Books Collection, and the Museum of Modern Art's Artists' Books Collection.