NUMBER 8, 15-19 BOUNDARY STREET, DARLINGHURST, SYDNEY
20 October - 5 November 2022
This collection of Lionel Smit's paintings and bronze sculpture opens on 20th October.
Collide: Divergent forces at the moment on impact
With Collide, celebrated South African portrait artist, Lionel Smit, continues to colligate his mastery of baroque and neoclassical techniques, artfully juxtaposing them with bolder expressionistic elements. This powerful portrait series is a direct evolution of Smit’s metaphysical explorations of opposing centrifugal and centripetal forces that coexist in art and nature.
Portraiture as dialogue
For Smit, these forces are represented in his oeuvre in the interplay between formalistic classicism on one end of the spectrum — and spontaneous expressionism on the other. Collide represents the next phase of Smit’s exploration which began with his previous exhibit, Pendulum.
In the former exhibit, the pendulum remained in motion. With Collide we now witness the moment of impact. The pendulum has struck an ideological wall and something wild and beautiful has broken free. The result is an explosion of energy and colour. In this series, the hegemonic power of the viewer’s gaze is turned on its head.
What we are witnessing is a playful dialogic dance.
Colour unbound
Colour play is bolder, more overt and more exuberant. Vivid hues explode across the canvas. Viscous, unfettered brush strokes represent the debris as forces collide and the inner essence of the muse escapes the confines and strictures of a formalistic lens.
The visage portrayed is both one face and all faces — tracing the universality of collective human experience. Each canvas is the expression of a different emotional facet contained within the whole. The viewer’s gaze cannot be fixed and cannot contain the subject. Instead, we must allow our perspective to become fluid and adaptative as we traverse the varied filters and states of being the artist has placed before us.
Unfettered defiance
The intimacy and allure of Vermeer’s iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring are referenced in both the classicist rendering and facial expression of the subject in a piece like Stabilise. However, in Smit’s work, the elements of chiaroscuro he has worked to master in previous pieces, are replaced here with unfettered splashes of colour and abstract elements.
There is a sense of defiance here that is venerated and celebrated. Smit empowers his subject so as to honour her internal life, and his own as an artist, via a powerful visual panegyric.
.M CONTEMPORARY, SYDNEY
.M Contemporary is a gallery space that aims to create a cross-cultural conversation through exhibiting contemporary artists from around the world. Based in Darlinghurst, Sydney, the gallery continues to foster a strong appreciation for a new generation of artists and to expose them to a wide audience of collectors. Progressive, diverse and all-encompassing, they aim to expose art to a far-reaching yet astute audience.
For inquiries at .M Contemporary:
Michelle Paterson
gallery@mcontemp.com
+61 0415 692 294
www.mcontemp.com
Gallery hours:
Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm
Saturday 10am – 4pm