Andy Smith

This is my dad and I visited him recently in lockdown to discover that he's been busier than ever! He normally works on conceptual and political stuff for galleries, but without that kind of opportunity available, I found him knee-deep in life drawings from classes he attends on Zoom, and other themes that he has been freed up to explore.

He is also a technophobe and would prefer to paint rather than ‘spend a minute on a computer'
Long story short; we agreed that I could help him make room in his house/studio by selling his work as he is ‘falling over the things'.

My practice is ever evolving and is difficult to define. Looking back, there appears to be a constant theme of encouraging public engagement with and through art.
Art has simply always been my language of choice to initiate discourse. Following several years working as a Community Artist, my re-training in Fine Art (Bolton University BA and MA 2011 to 15) has given me a new perspective on how the ‘art world’ itself could use postmodern attitudes to include and enable the wider world to address cultural and societal issues.
I like to examine the logocentric perception we have of meaning. How this meaning is then used as a strategy by the powerful to manipulate thought and action. I use recognisable and newly created symbols and icons to investigate, challenge and sometimes deconstruct established norms of cognitive coding.
Typically emanating from mark-making, (painting, drawing) works have evolved into installations, sculpture, activist’s props and even a political campaign. (2015 General Election)