Artist: Lionel Smit

ABOUT ME

As part of our ongoing creative process, "4me4you" visited the Rook and Raven Gallery to engage with the dynamic and evocative work of renowned South African artist Lionel Smit, showcased in his exhibition Cumulus.

MY PROCESS

Smit’s paintings are not the product of a single, decisive moment, but rather emerge through a continuous process of creation, destruction, and recreation. He begins with abstract layers of paint, sometimes working with swathes of colour and varied tones.

“Cumulus“

Known for his exploration of identity and cultural themes, Smit’s work delves deeply into the nuances of the human condition, often through the lens of the Cape Malay community. His artistic process is both experimental and intuitive, marked by an intricate layering technique that brings out the essence of his subjects, while leaving room for ambiguity and discovery

These initial layers serve as a foundation, from which his models, often drawn from indeterminate sources, slowly emerge. Using photographs projected onto the canvas, Smit then reworks the image, blending colour and line in such a way that they collapse into one another, challenging the viewer to discern the boundaries of form and identity.

The result is a painting process that is as much about discovery as it is about creation, with each layer revealing fragments of meaning that invite introspection.

The exhibition Cumulus at Rook and Raven Gallery brings this layered approach to the forefront, allowing audiences a glimpse into Smit’s creative evolution and the complexity of his engagement with the subject of identity.

His work is a visual meditation on the tension between recognition and abstraction, the visible and the hidden, and the personal and the collective.

Artist: Lionel Smit