David Schmidt Exhibit in LA

The Andrew Myers gallery in Laguna Beach CA is pleased to be showing the art work of American/Israeli artist David Schmidt.

This show will be a combination of his most recent works, “Self-Sacrifice of the IDF and First Responders,” previously displayed at the Jerusalem Theatre in Israel, and now in Johannesburg.

This show will be a combination of his most recent works, “Self-Sacrifice of the IDF and First Responders,” previously displayed at the Jerusalem Theatre in Israel, and now in Johannesburg. 

Also showing will be some of his previous works of World Leaders, in which the artist expresses his true feelings about them.

His daughter, Aviva Schmidt, the daughter of David and Shoshana Schmidt, will be hosting the exhibit whose opening will be on Saturday evening, December 14th, from 6-9 PM.

The evocative and powerful work of David Schmidt was previously featured in the Jewish Journal in August 23, 2023 — how prescient — less than seven weeks before October 7th. The name of the exhibit, that took place in the Jerusalem Theatre, was named “Mesirus Nefesh” (literally “Self-Sacrifice”).

To recap: Schmidt received his degree in Fine Arts at UCLA Fine Arts in the mid-1960s, got a studio in Venice, and did well selling his works. In 1969 he met his wife, Shoshana, and they got married on the beach at sunset. Their journey then took them through Spain, back to the US, and he found work as an executive, eventually opening his own firm.

About twenty years later he experienced a religious metamorphosis “…while walking down the street in Laguna Beach” where he met a Chabad rabbi who invited him to learn Jewish mysticism.

His wife Shoshana started lighting candles, then turning their kitchen kosher. In October, 1993, in Laguna Beach, 200 houses burned, “Including ours,” says Shoshana. “Everything was gone, even some of David’s paintings. The house we rented after the fire was closer to the Chabad shul, although a mile straight up a huge hill, in an area called ‘Top of the World.’ The Chabad rabbi [Rabbi Eli Goorevitch] said to my husband, ‘If you walk down the hill to shul, after kiddush I will walk up with you.’ This is when we became shomer Shabbos.”

In 1996 the Schmidts moved to Israel. Four of their five children live in Israel. One daughter, Aviva, who will be hosting the exhibit, returned to Laguna Beach, where she is a personal trainer, yoga instructor and author of “You Got This.” Two of their sons were in the army. One of those is a Mixed Martial Arts and Krav Maga instructor. They have a grandson who was in one of the Special Forces. Shoshana told the Journal that this year both of them were in and out of the war, and also both of them had new babies this year.

After being a successful businessman for 20 years, with Shoshana’s encouragement, he returned to creating art. The current exhibit includes collages portraying soldiers that incorporate pieces of photographs of his sons’ uniforms. They are a selection of those artworks exhibited in Jerusalem in August, 2023, and more recently in South Africa.

Schmidt’s work was also in the Journal in November, 2023, featuring a prayer he created and exhibited in a storefront in Jerusalem — a Meshaberech Prayer for Hostages. We are still praying. 

And still waiting.

Toby Klein Greenwald is an award-winning journalist and theater director in Israel, and editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com