Schmalz recounted that at age 19, he dropped out of a prestigious art school in Canada. “Pope John Paul II spoke of the culture of death. If you really want to see that, go to an art school. It is nihilism on acid.”
Rather than clash with his instructors, Schmalz left for schooling on his own but with traditional masterworks as his guide to create Christian art.
“I was the most radical artist in Canada,” he said, “because what I was doing with representing Jesus and the Virgin Mary was the only thing that was not allowed in an art gallery. There they wouldn’t even call it art.”
“Just like the Impressionists of the 1800s, who weren’t accepted in the salons of the day, Christian art is not wanted in today’s salons,” Schmalz noted.
Schmalz came to world attention with his Homeless Jesus statue, which was first installed at Regis College in Toronto in 2013. The bronze depicts a human figure reclining on a park bench, which has been mistaken at times for a living person. Upon close inspection, viewers can see the marks of the crucifixion on its feet. Copies have since been installed in Capernaum, Israel; Fátima, Portugal; as well as many cities, including Detroit and Pope Francis’ native Buenos Aires, Argentina. Schmalz’s works are found in churches, universities, and public places in cities around the world.
Among Schmalz’s other projects, he is also working on making sculptural representations of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, which laments consumerism, global warming, and environmental degradation. He also has a project in the works depicting the holy Eucharist and Blessed Carlo Acutis, the Italian teen who documented Marian apparitions and Eucharistic miracles.
Schmalz is also the official sculptor for the coming National Eucharistic Congress to be held this July 17–21 in Indianapolis.