The practice of Esteban Schimpf traffics in humor and color. The satirical voice of his work enables him to poke fun at profound subjects whilst maintaining a nonchalant distance. For his work God, Imagine the Storm on Jupiter, which was exhibited at the biennial Portugal Arte 10 in Lisbon, he scrawled the aforementioned rumination onto a billboard and had it placed in a typical European square. The piece disarmed viewers into a lightweight sense of the sublime. The billboard looked decidedly LA in the incongruous environment of the elegant square.
Schimpf received his degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been featured internationally in exhibitions including California Dreaming, curated by Fred Hoffmann at Portugal Arte 10, Lisbon (2010), Los Angeles Contemporary, 2012, Hang In There, curated by Jason Lazurus, Chicago (2011), Billboard Project, curated by Lauri Firstenberg and LA><ART, Los Angeles, (2010), the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago, and Bad Moon at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago (2008). In addition to Instant LA Summer 2 : HEAVY HAPPY, he curated its prequel, Instant LA Summer 1, at Carmichael Gallery, Los Angeles (2010). He also maintains and art advisory firm and is slated to open a commercial gallery in New York City.
The Artist lives and works between New York City and Los Angeles, where he occupies his time reading and loitering on the internet.