Paola Tiné-Smiech

BIO
Originally from Italy (Palermo 1991) and currently based in Australia, I am an expressionist painter working at the intersection between the social sciences and the fine arts.

ARTIST STATEMENT
I see the canvas as an ‘heterotopia’, using a term by Foucault, another world within this world, mirroring and yet upsetting what is outside; a space of experimentation in which the constructed mechanisms of social life are revealed as in a photographic negative.

INSPIRATIONS
I am inspired by Chagall, Schiele, Paula Rego, Berthe Morisot, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and Sicilian artists Renato Guttuso and Gianbecchina. Many of my works are based or influenced by my fieldwork research in Nepal and Australia, and by the social world were I grew up in Palermo.

TECHNIQUES AND OUTPUTS
I am prevalently a figurative painter. My practice involves studio work and exhibitions, as well as teaching, academic publications and creative writing. Since 2022 I have started to sell my work on Saatchi art.

MFA Fine Art, Open University of the Creative Arts, London

PhD Social Anthropology, The University of Adelaide, South Australia

MA Visual Anthropology, The University of Siena, Italy

BA Human Sciences, The University of Siena, Italy

Fine Art Certificate, London Fine Art Studios, UK

- 2023 Graduate Exhibition OCA, London Barnsey

- 2022 What Is an Image? IVSA Exhibition (2022 Conference)

- 2022 Graduate Showcase OCA, online

- 2021 Hidden Talents Art Exhibition, Seika University (SEIKA), Kyoto, Japan; International Convention for Asia Scholars (ICAS 12), Crafting a Global Future.

- 2014 Solo exhibition “Finestre sul mondo: la città, la folla, l’uomo” (Windows to the World: City, Crowd, People), San Galgano building, The University of Siena.