Upcoming:
Cysylltiad Lliw + Colour Connections at Oriel Môn, Anglesey, North Wales Septe,ber 2024
Andrew Smith has recently been awarded an Arts Council of Wales Grant for a joint collaborative project Cysylltiad Lliw + Colour Connections. He has participated in the International Painting Symposium Mark Rothko at the Rothko Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia September 2021, followed by the Faberlull Residency in Catalunya. Andrew is a Wales based painter working consistently with colour by means of exhibition projects (Colour Equilibrium 2018) and exploring cultural contexts by establishing exchange links with international partners (most recently, Poland, Australia and India 2018 to 2019). He has worked on public art projects and commissions exploring colour in terms of location and scale (Barry 2009, Cardiff 2010, Russia 2011, Llandudno 2019 and Llandrindod Wells 2021). His curated projects include Re/take Re/invent (2016) funded by Arts Council of Wales. In 2018, Andrew was AiR at Sauerbier House, South Australia for three months, supported by Wales Arts International. His most recent long term residency was in North East India followed by a tour of Madhya Pradesh with an exhibition at Alliance Français de Bhopal and this experience informs current practice. As an educator, Andrew has taught throughout his career and until 2017 was Director of Fine Art at Bangor University.
Statement:
Recent work has been studio based and reflective of preceding international placements. Taking as a point of reference the idea of non-place, my painting has evolved through a parallel questioning of objectivity with methodology exploring memory and experience. With diffused imagery there appears an interrogation of reality, a dense clustering of line, shape and colour; intersections, gestures and directions. Rhythm and repetition, spontaneity and design are indicative of current work, combining both the rational and emotional state of making.
My painting methodology of working on location is defined as creating ‘scapes’ (involving multiple facets of a subject) evolved through both exploratory studies and in the production of a definitive project portfolio for exhibition. The overarching aim is the continued deconstruction of existing method to forge a new image, one apparently not encountered before. On short or longer residency situations there is relational time to assimilate surroundings and context, hence the work necessarily shifts and evolves depending on the place; the method proposes to explore the physiognomy of location.
Practice Blog:
Portrait by Graham Hembrough for Retake Reinvent 2016
