Smit started developing and exhibiting straight after art school at Pro Arte Alphen Park. He now lives and works in Cape Town. He is best known for his contemporary portraiture executed through monumental canvasses and sculptures.
Smit is currently exhibiting on 5 continents, and at art fairs in Amsterdam, Germany, India, Miami, Monaco, London, and Hong Kong. Over the past 10 years he has established a substantial international following with collectors ranging from the Standard Chartered Bank to Laurence Graff Art Collection at Graff Delaire wine estate.
In 2013 Smit’s painting has been exhibited at the London National Portrait Gallery, where it received the Viewer’s Choice Award, as well as selected as the ‘face’ of the BP Portrait Award that year for all campaigns. He was recently honoured with a Ministerial Award from the Department of Culture for Visual Art and a highlight of his career has been the publication of one of his paintings on the cover of Christie’s Auction Catalogue. Smit’s most recent installation Obscura, was shown at both Everard Read Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Sources:
- Everard Read gallery. Lionel Smit. 2021. [O]. Available: https://www.everard-read-capetown.co.za/artist/LIONEL_SMIT/biography/Accessed: 2021/08/11.
- Smit, L. Lionel Smit. 2021.[O]. Available: https://www.lionelsmit.com/Accessed: 2021/08/11.
