Richard Templeton Smith has an exhibition titled Incognito, opening at Ebony/Curated Cape Town on Wednesday 19th March at 6 pm.
Smith left South Africa in 2019 and now lives in Spain. He returns to Cape Town in person for the exhibition of 11 new paintings created in his Spanish studio, which capture the quirky nature of life, the whimsical, and the intimate. This latest body of work is the first in which the artist feels he is responding to his environment rather than intuitively drawing from his imagination. Smith relies heavily on process and the use of paint, which in turn creates painterly works- his visual reflections of the physical world.
A recurring theme in Smith’s paintings since the early 1990s is the use of symbols and objects, such as eggs and ovals, as compositional and functional devices: in his own words to “stop things running away in his paintings.” In every case different figures and objects speak to the artist—he is unsure why, but they all hold meaning and represent a subconscious reaction to his creative process. For example, whenever he attempts to explore the abstract, the figurative inevitably crosses over and becomes more dominant.
- There is a cycle of continual yet organised experimentation in Smith’s artistic output, where the brush remains the dominant force.
“His career-long devotion to human subjects is not simply a matter of recurrence; his figures achieve more than mere presence, they dominate his work. Sometimes this is obvious and literal, as in his earlier charcoal drawings, which record the artist’s observant encounters with actual sitters. […] Whether specifically identified or generically portrayed, his figures are a ballast, a stabilising device in a career marked by intermittent flirtations with modes of realism and abstraction.” – Sean O’Toole
We look forward to interviewing Richard Templeton Smith on the Sanlam Arts Round Up.
WHAT: Richard Templeton Smith – Incognito
WHERE: EBONY/CURATED, 67 Loop St, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: Opening 19th March at 6 pm |
INFO: T 021 4249985 | E jade@ebonycurated.com | VISIT
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