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Summer Exhibition 2010
Philip Smith
(born 1962)
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Philip Smith’s work is primarily concerned with space, object, architecture. In particular the banal objects and constructions (barriers, fences, traffic islands) that delineate space and act to direct us through it, and the overlooked “non places” of alleyways, gaps, thresholds; spaces in and around. These buildings, boundaries and pathways that inform our understanding of space and regulate our routes through it, also create spaces between, behind and around that make it possible to see the landscape as something that moves between a state of order and disorder, at once organised and chaotic. Municipal spaces with benches, bus shelters that tell you where to sit and wait, shrubs framing a path, are there ostensibly to categorise, to direct and to make sense of the space but, when imagined on a bigger scale (or perhaps seen via Google earth) only add to the notion of this as an entropic landscape made up of a series of small, joined, chaotic compartments.
Within this investigation the process of drawing acts as a list – an attempt to categorise and rationalise real, imagined and remembered spaces – to stand back from well-known objects, to isolate them in space and to re-consider form, function and importance. We recognise the objects here but they exist within a self-sufficient world apart - a counter world of distinct archetypes: house, fence, field, table, door, window.
Drawing, transfer, print, beeswax; the repetition of a process adding to the notion of a cycle of work in which groupings of objects, spaces and materials are re-visited, expanded upon, experienced again, differently. The sheet of paper itself a space within which these objects and spaces can be further scrutinised. Primarily expressed through a strong engagement with drawing, this work continues to examine these observed or imagined spaces whilst employing the found surfaces of used or discarded paper; a surface which seems to carry its own history and narrative.
Education:
Foundation – Watford School of Art
BA Fine Art – Middlesex University
MA Print-making – Camberwell College of Arts
Selected solo and joint exhibitions include:
2002 “Raw Canvas” – Aldwych, London.
2005 “Naked” – Moreton Street Gallery, London.
2005 – 08 (inclusive) Contemporary British Art – Millinery Works Gallery, London.
2008 Printmakers Council Show – Waterloo Gallery, London.
2009 7th British International Mini Print Exhibition – London Print Studio, London.
2009 Ropewalk Gallery, Barton on Humber.
2009 Melton Library Art Gallery, Leicestershire.
2009 Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
2009 Salle Capitulaire and Pierre Press Gallery, France.
2010 “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” – The Gallery @ 57, London.
Philip is currently Course Leader – Fine Art Foundation Course, City and Islington College, London.
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