Matthew David Smith

Lives and works in Oxford and London

Smith’s most recent body of work has made a definitive leap, becoming more pared back and considered as he responds to his former work and utters previous motifs.

His work has taken a step closer towards dealing with the artwork as an object and surface. Although the imagery of his work has simplified, this has allowed the surface to grow and become more complex. Notions of the man-made still remain but with more of a direct focus on design and the decorative.

The decorative raises questions of aesthetic quality and removes social barriers. It is liberated from definition, from the mass-produced to opulent rarity, it is for the people and shapes the world we live in.

Smith’s visually active works are not necessarily there to be understood, they are to be experienced. The forms come from abstracted everyday iconography but also self-reference through reinvestigating previously used forms. Functioning as a visual scaffold, the forms support each other across the picture to balance and hold the composition.

This series has pushed Smith’s own visual language to something more direct and resolved. Hinting at past movements such as the Constructivists he is theoretically grounded in art...

Oxford Brookes University - BA Hons in Fine Art
2011 - 2014

Oxford Brookes University - Diploma in Foundation Studies in Art and Design
2010 – 2011

Solo Exhibitions
• Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford, UK. 2015
• The Jam Factory, Lost in Shadows, Oxford, UK. 2010

Group Exhibitions
• Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Summertime 18, Denmark. 15th June – 25th August 2018
• GIFC Worldwide, Barcelona. May 2018
• Galleri Benoni, Art Herning, Denmark. 25th - 28th January 2018
• Beers London, Works on Paper, London. 17th November - 23rd December 2017
• Selected Works from the Bech Risvig Collection, Huset for Kunst of Designer, Denmark. 19th August - 1st October 2017
• Coates and Scarry Gallery, Lower Gallery, London. July 2017
• Coates and Scarry Gallery, Selected Works Exhibition, London. 2017
• Coates and Scarry Gallery, Visceral, London. 9th – 25th February 2017
• Jealous (Print Run) - Saatchi Gallery, London. January 2017
• Zuleika Gallery, Colourtastic, Oxford, UK 17th-23rd November. 2016
• Transition Gallery, Paper Cuts curated by Kristian Day, London, UK. 2016
• Hidden, Zuleika Gallery, London. September 19th - 25th 2016.
Peter Care, Antony Gormley, Howard Hodgkin, Aglae Bassens, Claudia Clare, Robert Motherwell and Matthew David Smith.
• Sampler presented by Kristian Day at Arcade Fine Art, London. August 2016
• Contemporary Perception, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1st Jul...