Angela Smets was born 1965 in Bocholt, Germany. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. The all-round artist works as a graphic artist, designer, painter and illustrator. She holds creative workshops and painting classes in her studio and at various art colleges.

For the artist, who has her studio in the old Wiedefabrik in Munich, free play is the basis of her work: lithography, silk-screen printing, etching and painting, fresh colours and airy, light compositions are playfully combined and she is always a border crosser in her work. “This is possibly due to her birthplace, Bocholt, which is located on the German-Dutch border,” she says. She grew up there in the mid-sixties and moved to Munich when she was 18.

For her, the creative process begins in the game, unhampered by rules or prefabricated patterns. Smets combines her techniques undogmatically and experimentally.

The artist places nature and the traces she finds in it at the centre of her work. The appeal of the subject is the inexhaustible wealth of wonderful inspirations.

As a studied painter, she discovered printmaking quite late, but today she enthusiastically combines both worlds.

What drives you in life, Angela?

I am by nature a very curious and creative person. My favourite time is when I can get my fingers dirty in my studio.

I am fascinated by details that most people would perhaps pass by.

They catch my eye: traces, shadows and structures. First I make sketches and then graphics, which I condense – until completely new stories emerge. Rhythmic pictorial spaces grow through overlays. Isn’t that what we are all looking for: a story that says something about us and tells our world?

“Nowhere has man shown more ingenuity than in his games,” said Leibnitz.

As far as the Enlightenment philosopher seems to us today, he was right.

You want to get in contact with the artist Angela Smets?

Then visit her website, follow her on LinkedIN, Facebook or Instagram, visit her personally in her studio in Munich or write her an email directly.