AIDAN LEE SMITH-Visual Artist

Who is Aidan Lee Smith?

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I was born in Perth, Western Australia on 5 February 1985.

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I enjoyed fine art at school and had some success with portraiture, exhibiting at The Young Originals and Perspectives exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2002, winning the latter. I received an academic scholarship to study a Bachelor of Law at Notre Dame University in Fremantle and graduated in 2006.

 

I was never particularly interested in Law so I began trying to figure out exactly what I wanted from my life, subsequently travelling the world, living and working various odd jobs in countries such as the UAE, Italy, Russia, Mexico and Central America. During this period I dabbled in Art occasionally but rarely gave it much of a chance.

 

I moved to Margaret River in 2010 and began dabbling in art and music again. The turning point for me was my 30th birthday; I decided to take the plunge and do what I had always dreamt of – being an artist. I began to realise that I had always viewed the world as an artist, so much so that I was forever being pulled up on staring at things too much. I began painting seriously again and sold my first work in early 2015. Within 2 months I held my first solo exhibition, which was a raging success, selling all 14 pieces. From there I left my odd menial jobs behind and became a full time artist.

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I am proudly self taught, and thus focus on experimenting with a range of techniques, styles and subjects. I am heavily influenced by Voka and Spontaneous Realism, graffiti and street art, and the layered pallette knife work of artists such as Joshua Miels and Francoise Nielly. My works are most often large format and are characterised by bold colours, emotional raw brush strokes and extensive layering.

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I regularly produce commissioned works and now have paintings hanging in businesses and homes around the world.

 

Exhibitions

• 2002 “Young Originals” Art Gallery of Western Australia

• 2002 “Perspectives” Art Gallery of Western Australia

• 2015 Debut Solo Exhibition: ‘Life is Colour’. Smithereens, Cowaramup, WA

• 2015 Wills Domain Winery, Yallingup, WA

• 2015 Cheeky Monkey Brewery, Wilyabrup, WA

• 2015 The Common, Prevelly, WA

• 2015 Brew Shack, WA

• 2015 Southern Crust, WA

Publications

• 2002 The West Australian Newspaper

• 2015 Various Local Newspapers including ‘The Mail’ and ‘The Times’

• 2015 Scoop Magazine