LIONEL SMIT

​

Lionel Smit is one of South Africa’s most prolific and exalted artists. His artistic diversity is pursued through a variety of mediums and he is best known for his contemporary portraiture. 

Above all, Lionel Smit’s art is defined by a deeply rooted symbiotic relationship between sculpture and painting. Born in 1982 in Pretoria, Smit was exposed to a world of art through his father, renowned sculptor, Anton Smit, who worked from his studio adjacent to the family home.

​

Today, each of Lionel Smit’s works offers us an entry point into the variety and richness that lies beneath every face we encounter in life, whether applied in bronze or paint. The blending of techniques across genres is a display of Smit’s work in multiple media, all bearing a visible and tangible overlap. 

His paintings start with abstract lines and swaths of colour that establish a base for the subsequently overlaid image of a face or bust and has been known to use anonymous models from the Cape Malay community. For Smit, the Cape Malay woman epitomises a hybrid identity within a South African context and reflects the disintegrating construction of identity within our increasingly globalised world.

​

Lionel Smit’s process as an artist remains adaptive, inventive, and physically engaging. Through this he has achieved global success, including sell-out exhibitions in London and Hong Kong. 

His work continues to inspire and captivate the minds of art novices and experts alike, from Europe to America.