From a young age, Lionel Smit has moved between sculpture and painting.

Having grown up with sculpture1, the medium seemed at rst the best outlet for his creativity. However, after a few years, Smits enthusiasm for sculpture waned, and he dipped a tentative toe into the waters of painting. Liking the feel, he dived in, transforming a space long-accustomed to the workings of clay into a textured location of canvas and colour.2 Thus far as a painter of large-scale portraits, Smit has steadily strayed from gurative representation. A few small paintings hang in a corner of his current studio in Strand, Cape Town as a reminder of the days in which gure came rst, but a quick glance into the rest of the substantial studio space is enough to conrm that surface is now Smits primary interest. Enormous canvases in various stages of completion ll the space. Great paths of colour and fervent drips and splashes adorn every working surface. But what is most intriguing is that the canvases furthest from completion contain no gure at all. This is because Smits portraits do not function in the traditional sense, intent on capturing an aspect (or, ideally, the essence) of the sitters personality. Instead, Smits expressionism casts a veil over realism, the portrait still holding the residue of his performative practice. The face of the sitter provides, quite simply, a container for Smits experimentation with colour and stroke. In the early stages of each work Smit is involved entirely in the action of painting, which has for a long time been the locus of his inspiration, directed by a nuanced and intuitive understanding of colour. As the abstract surface is built, the

image of the subject emerges and Smit applies dening lines, shadows and highlights in order to reveal the face. This method runs contrary to ordinary techniques of gurative painting or drawing, in which the foundation of the gure is laid rst as sketch and then lled out, with realism as a precursor to abstraction. It is also, signicantly, not unlike the process in which a sculptor might be involved, building through abstraction into representation. Smit has recently returned to sculpture, but with a decidedly painterly approach. The sculptures that appear in this body of work are counterparts of the paintings over-sized bronze busts modelled on similar subjects to those that appear in the paintings. At rst, the impenetrable permanence of bronze seems at odds with expressive practice. However, Smits treatment of the medium and the level of his involvement at every step of the process reveal bronze to be especially well-suited to the translation of his painterly activities into sculpture. Smits bronzes are created using the lost-wax casting method, which is one of the oldest known metal-forming techniques. There are a number of steps in the procedure, beginning with the moulding of the form out of clay. Smit has described his approach to sculpting as a mimic of his approach to painting.3 The surface is built up with pieces of clay in the same way that his painting surface is created through overlaying bands and swathes of colour until a desired effect is achieved; with both media, Smit is engaged in a curious game of push

and pull between the gurative and the abstract. The tactility of the sculpted form simulates the complexity of the abstract painted surface. Once the clay form is complete, a mould is made of the gure into which molten wax is then poured to achieve a coating that will, once hardened and removed from the mould, form a copy of the clay original. At this point, the common practice is to chase the wax model rubbing out any marks that may have formed, smoothing out any imperfections. However, true to expressionist form, Smit moves in the opposite direction. Rather than clean the model up, Smit reviews the model and works into it further painting molten wax with a brush or pouring it over the face to achieve drips and splashes. The reworked wax model is then ready to be cast into bronze. Once complete, the patination process begins. Patina refers to colours that are produced on the surface of bronze through its natural aging process in certain environments. A patineur accelerates the process using heat and chemicals in order to achieve a particular effect in a shorter space of time.4 Commonly, the patinas available to artists are natural browns, blacks and greens. However, considering the importance of colour to Smit in his painting, and the integrity with which his painting practice translates into sculpture, traditional patinas dont quite t the bill. Hence, Smit collaborated closely with Jose Ventura of Janapatina using alternative patinas, including fume patinas, which allow for the fusion of intensely saturated colours onto the bronze.

Smits ability to intervene in the patination process has produced remarkable results that are in keeping with his avant-garde approach. Brilliant streaks of blue and green collect in the grooves of an ear; the natural shadow in the crease of an eye lid is intensied by the deepening of a rich black patina. Absorbed in Smits fascinating use of robust patinas, the viewer returns full circle. As it is with Smits paintings, although they do indeed contain faces, the surface of the work complicates the conception of the gure. Smit has elaborately constructed and successfully achieved a tension between representation and texture in his paintings. His pre-occupation with surface and its nuances, as well as his unconventional approach to the medium, has allowed Smit to consistently translate this tension into bronze. The complexities of colour both technically and by association are ultimately the key to Smits fruitful experimental treatment of traditional practices. 1 2 3 4 Smits father is the Gauteng-based sculptor, Anton Smit. See Dialogues by Sanford S. Shaman, in Submerge, catalogue for Smits 2010 exhibition at 34FineArt. Ibid. An amusing example of this in history can be found in a story from the studio of 19th Century French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, who would instruct his assistants to urinate on completed sculptures stored outside. Jacqueline Nurse, 2011

SURFACE STRUCTURE #4

Oil on Canvas 170 x 130cm 2011

SURFACE STRUCTURE #1

Oil on Canvas 170 x 130cm 2011

SURFACE STRUCTURE #2

Oil on Canvas 170 x 130cm 2011

FRAGILE AREA

Oil on Canvas 165 x 230cm 2011

SUB SURFACE

Oil on Canvas 165 x 165cm 2011

SIREN

Oil on Canvas 80 x 80cm 2011

EXTERNAL

Oil on Canvas 230 x 165cm 2011

SURFACE STRUCTURE #3

Oil on Canvas 170 x 130cm 2011

DIVERT #1

Bronze Edition of 12 180 x 45 x 30cm 2011

MALAY GIRL WITH DRIPS

Bronze Edition of 12 78 x 32 x 51cm 2011

DETAIL OF A FUME PATINA

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Born in Pretoria, 1982. Lives and works in Cape Town.

2008 - REFLECTIONS, group exhibition, Rust-en-Vrede, Durbanville - Day Dream, two man show with Jaco Benade, Magpie Gallery, Centurion - Rendezvous - focus wearable art, Fada Art Gallery, Johannesburg - Reect/refuel, group exhibition, Association of Arts, Pretoria - Twenty artists/twenty portraits, UCA Gallery, Cape Town 2007 - Project, group exhibition, Carol Lee Fine Art, Johannesburg - Flesh/:scape, two man show with M.J. Lourens, Magpie Gallery, Centurion 2006 - 40 x 40, group exhibition, KKNK Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn - Epidemic, Judge, Hope, solo exhibition, Voir Gallery, Pretoria - Physical self, group exhibition, Gallery 88, Sasolburg - Turn the table, group exhibition, Artspace, Johannesburg 2005 - Group therapy, group exhibition, Civic Gallery, Sandton - Oppitafel, group exhibition, Artspace, Johannesburg 2004 - Pretoria, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town - Solitude, two man exhibition with Rossouw van der Walt, Gordart Gallery, Johannesburg 2003 - Mortem Life, two man exhibition, Visual Arts Gallery, Johannesburg - Spring of Gifts, group exhibition, Soan Studio, London - New Signatures, group exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum - PPC Sculpture Competition, Association of Arts, Pretoria 2002 - Three man show with Liam Lynch and Zander Blom, Millennium Gallery, Pretoria - Matriarch, group exhibition, Minds I Gallery, Pretoria Selected Publications and Media Catalogues - Out of the Ofce, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany 2010 - WE ARE NOT WITCHES, Saatchi Gallery, October 2010 - Submerge, LIONEL SMIT, 34FineArt, October 2010 - Christies, F.A.C.E.T. (catalogue cover), October 2009 - Residue, Grande Provence Gallery, October 2009 - Group therapy, Sandton Civic Gallery, 2005 - Pretoria, Everard Read Gallery, November 2004 Articles - ART OF AFRICA, Grafti, The Graff Magazine, Summer 2010 - Grand Scale, Garden and Home Magazine, April 2010 - AbouTime Magazine, 2007 - Ou idees met moderne aanslag, RAPPORT, 2 July 2006 - A look away, Art Magazine, 2006 - Individuality of faces, Pretoria News, 15 June 2006 - Soos in n tweepas, Beeld plus, 26 November 2004 - Radically different works from striking ensemble, Interval, May 2002 Collections - Ellerman Contemporary - Laurence Graff Collection - Rand Merchant Bank - European Investment Bank - Johannesburg City Council - Saronsberg Wine Estate - Delaire Graff Wine Estate - South African Embassy, Nigeria - Parkdev - Various private and corporate collections

Qualications and Awards 2009 - Merit Award, Vuleka, Sanlam Art Competition, Cape Town 2008 - Achievement Award, Pro Arte School of Arts 2000 - First prize in the MTN Art Colours Awards of Gauteng 1999/2000 - Best painting student Pro Arte School of Arts Selected Exhibitions 2011 - Surface, solo exhibition, Artspace, Johannesburg - 34FineArt, Art Monaco 11, Monaco - MOMAC, group exhibition, Roberta Moore Fine Art, England 2010 - Cynthia Reeves Projects, group exhibition, Art Miami, USA - We are not Witches, group exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London - Submerge, solo exhibition, 34FineArt, Cape Town - Out of the Ofce, group exhibition, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany 2009 - F.A.C.E.T., Charity Auction, Christies, London - Group 09, group exhibition, 34Long Fine Art, Cape Town - Gesprek, group exhibition, University of Stellenbosch Gallery, Stellenbosch - Relate, solo exhibition, Grande Provence, Franschhoek - Nuance, group exhibition, UCA Gallery, Cape Town - Identity, group exhibition, Platform on 18th Gallery, Pretoria

Artspace Chester Court 142 Jan Smuts Avenue Parkwood 2193 Tel: +27 (0)11 880 8802 Fax: +27 (0)86 649 8551 Email: artspace@wol.co.za Web: www.artspace-jhb.co.za