EBONY/CURATED opens South African born artist Richard Templeton Smith's new exhibition titled "Incognito" taking place in their Cape Town gallery in Loop Street.
Image: Supplied.
After six years, celebrated South African artist Richard Templeton Smith has returned to Cape Town to showcase his latest solo exhibition Incognito.
The exhibition, showcasing eleven captivating oil paintings inspired by the picturesque landscapes of Spain, will be on display at the EBONY/CURATED gallery in Loop street from 19 March 2025.
Smith's paintings reflect a unique artistic vision, blending surreal dreamscapes with human figures.
“I start off painting abstract, but the paint always tells me there’s a figure there. These paintings have nothing to do with me. They are not autobiographical. I don’t know where they come from. At first, they are strangers to me, but over time in my studio, as I develop each composition, layering the paint, perhaps adding charcoal lines to a figure, they become familiar and intimate," Smith said.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, but raised and educated in South Africa, Smith and his wife, Li, relocated from the Southern Cape village of Onrus to Ireland in 2019. After two years, they relocated to Spain’s Valencia region due to frustration with the inclement weather. While his new body of work is undeniably shaped by his surroundings, it transcends mere illustration of his current environment. True to his long-standing approach, Smith’s dreamlike compositions emerge intuitively from his imagination, evolving gradually in the studio.
Hombre de la Compañia’ (Company Man) artwork by Richard Templeton Smith.
Image: Supplied.
Marc Stanes, Director of Ebony Curated, said: “Richard’s artworks possess a mesmeric quality, with his luscious use of paint and often irreverent subject matter. His paintings continue to fascinate me, just as they did when I first met him in 2012. His artistic credentials, shaped by his well-documented career as a political cartoonist in 1970s Johannesburg, still resonate in his paintings today. A curtain is pulled back to reveal a seemingly parallel universe – populated by figures and symbols that feel both familiar and uncanny. What has always struck me is his ability to create masterful, compelling, and timeless works quite unlike anything else I’ve seen.”
Same Day, Different People, 2024 Oil On Canvas by Richard Templeton Smith.
Image: Supplied.
The exhibition’s title derives from one of its featured works, Incognito (With Artifacts), which depicts a masked figure in a bowler hat and greatcoat. This mysterious figure is posed off-centre against a dry Spanish landscape, cypress trees visible through an arched hacienda wall. Throughout the series, motifs and symbols subtly reference Spain. In The Beekeeper, for instance, the swirling pink floor beneath a generic yellow figure echoes decorative patterns found on a tree-lined passage (Paseo) in Gandia.
Incognito will be exhibited at EBONY/CURATED gallery, 67 Loop Street from 19 March 2025 to 26 April 2025.
Weekend Argus
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