LIONEL SMIT

(b.1982 Pretoria, South Africa)

Lionel Smit is best known for his contemporary portraiture executed through monumental canvases and sculptures. Perhaps more than anything else, Lionel Smit’s art is defined by a deeply rooted symbiotic relationship between sculpture and painting. 

Each of Lionel Smit’s works offers us an entry point into the variety and richness that lies beneath every face we encounter in life, whether applied in bronze or in paint. The blending of techniques across genres is a display of Smit’s work in multiple media, all bearing visible overlap.

His paintings start with abstract lines and swaths of colour that establish a base for the subsequently overlaid image of a face or bust –often posed by anonymous models from the Cape Malay community. For Smit, the Cape Malay woman epitomises hybrid identity within a South African context and reflects the disintegrating construction of identity within our increasingly globalised world. His work is loaded with both historical and aesthetic precedent; clearly focused on the dialogue between the figurative and expressive abstract. Smit thus translates his own understanding of identity - drawing from images in his daily surrounds.

The artist’s subject matter is consistent. The people he paints or sculpts possess a particular quality that appeals to his visual sensitivity. The sitter’s face acts, quite simply, as a vessel for Smit’s experimentation with colour, stroke and technique.

In recent years, he has continued to expand his sculptural repertoire, creating bodies as well as faces. In both cases, his treatment of bronze reveals it to be especially well suited to the translation of his painterly activities into sculpture. These works are created using the lost wax casting method - one of the oldest known metal-forming techniques.

Patinas commonly available to artists working in bronze include natural browns, blacks and greens. Smit uses alternative methods that result in a unique fusion of these intensely saturated patinas onto the bronze. Brilliant streaks of blues and greens enrich the grooves of an ear, while the natural shadow of an eyelid is intensified by the deepening of rich black patinas. The style is immediately reminiscent of his paintings. The patination process, focused enthusiasm for surface gradations and brushstroke-like quality of his sculptural crafting are all indicative of his consistently pushing the envelope.

While retaining all their austerity and peaceful aesthetic, Smit's figures remain highly charged with the emotive and gestural energy of his creative process. His making remains adaptive, inventive, and physically engaging. Through this he has achieved success all over the world including sell-out exhibitions in London and Hong Kong. 

Smit's painting has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London where it received the Viewer’s Choice Award, as well as selected as the 'face' of the BP Portrait Award 2013 for all campaigns. He was also honoured with a Ministerial Award from the Department of Culture for Visual Art. A highlight of his career was the publication of one of his paintings on the cover of Christie’s Auction Catalogue. In June 2016, Smit, in collaboration with Cynthia-Reeves Gallery, installed a public art installation, Morphous, in Union Square, New York.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024   Form, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2023   Exposure, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2022   Interlude, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

           Pendulum, Uitstalling Gallery, Ghent, Belgium

           Interlude, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2021   Prelude, Everard Read, London, UK

           Discrepancies, Uitstalling Gallery, Ghent, Belgium

           Suspended, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2020  Reposition, Uitstalling Gallery, Ghent, Belgium

          Verso, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2019  Destructure, Everard Read, London, United Kingdom

          Manipulated Image, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2018  Obscura, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA

          Divide, Art|Life Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2017  State, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

          Emerge, M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia

          Faces of Identity, Everard Read, London, UK

          Premise, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2016  New Work, Rook & Raven Special Project Space at Armory Art Fair, New York City, USA

          Didrichsen Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland

          Morphous, installation in Union Square, New York, USA

          Echo, Cynthia-Reeves Gallery, Massachusetts, USA

          Trace, Rook & Raven, New York, USA

2015  FNB Joburg Art Fair, Everard Read booth, Johannesburg, South Africa

          Close/Perspective, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

          Origins, Rook & Raven, London, UK

          Recurrence, M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia

          Obscura, Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa

          Accumulation of Disorder installation, Independent Art Projects, MASS MoCA Campus, USA

 2014 Morphous, CIRCA, Johannesburg, South Africa

          Cumulus, Rook & Raven, London, UK

          Contronym, Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

 2013 Art Miami Fair, featured artist, Cynthia Reeves, Miami, USA

          IS Sculpture, IsArt, Tokara, Stellenbosch, South Africa

          Strarta Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, Rook & Raven, London, UK

          Fragmented, Rook & Raven, London, UK

          100 Accumulation, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

          Wonder Works Exhibition, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

2012  Compendium, 34FineArt, Cape Town, South Africa

          Strata, Rook and Raven, London, UK

2011  Surface, Artspace, Johannesburg,  South Africa

2010  Submerge, 34FineArt, Cape Town, South Africa

2009  Relate, Grande Provence, Franschhoek, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024  Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2023   What I Feel When I Think About the Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2023   Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2022   Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

           Spring, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

           3D in 22: South African Contemporary Sculpture, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2020   Staring Straight to the Future, online exhibition, Everard Read, UK & South Africa

           Masterpiece online, with Everard Read, London, UK

           The Portrait Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

           Pink, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2019   Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

           Art Central Fair, M Contemporary, Hong Kong

           Context Art Miami, with Everard Read, Miami, USA

           ArtXLAgos, with Everard Read, Lagos, Nigeria

2018   Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

           Sydney Contemporary, with M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia

2017   Exposed, Helen Day Art Center, Vermont, USA

           Art Miami, Cynthia-Reeves Gallery, Miami, USA

           Art Central, M Contemporary, Hong Kong

2016   Opening Gallery Exhibition, Everard Read London, UK

           Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Everard Read booth, Cape Town, South Africa

2015   Bronze, Steel & Stone, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

           FNB Joburg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery Booth, Johannesburg, South Africa

           Art Miami Fair Featured Artist, Cynthia Reeves Gallery, USA

2014   Summer Season, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

           Art Taipei, Cat Street Gallery, Taiwan

           Fugitive Identity, Cynthia Reeves, USA

2013   BP Portrait Award Exhibition, Viewer’s Choice Award , National Portrait Gallery, London, UK

           Metal Work Public sculpture, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2012   Accumulation of Disorder, University of Stellenbosch Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

           Winter, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

           Robert Bowman Gallery, India Art Fair, India

           Joburg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery Booth, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011   34FineArt, ArtMonaco ‘11, Monaco

           MOMAC, Group Exhibition, Roberta Moore Fine Art, England

2010   Out of the Office, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany

           Cynthia Reeves Projects, Art Miami, USA

           We are not Witches, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

2009   F.A.C.E.T., Charity Auction, Christie’s, London, UK

AWARDS

2013   Visitors’ Choice Award, PB Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK

           Ministerial Award from Department of Culture for Visual Art, South Africa

2009   Merit Award, Vuleka, Sanlam Art Competition, Cape Town, South Africa

2008   Achievement Award, Pro Arte School of Arts, Pretoria, South Africa

2000   First prize in the MTN Art Colours Awards of Gauteng, South Africa

1999   Best painting student Pro Arte School of Arts, Pretoria, South Africa

SELECTED CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

Delaire Graff Wine Estate, South Africa

Ellerman Contemporary, South Africa

European Investment Bank, South Africa

Grainvest Futures, South Africa

Johannesburg City Council, South Africa

Johann Jacobs Museum, South Africa

Laurence Graff Collection, South Africa

Parkdev, South Africa

Rand Merchant Bank, South Africa

Saronsberg Wine Estate, South Africa

South African Embassy, Nigeria

Standard Chartered Bank, South Africa