Andy
Smith
Andy Smith
My practice is ever evolving and is difficult to define. Looking back, there appears to be a continuing public engagement with and through art, in which artist and audience become co-creators of progressive ideas on the chosen issue in focus.
Art has simply always been my language of choice to initiate discourse. My re-training in Fine Art has given me a new perspective on how the 'art world' itself could use postmodern attitudes to include and enable the wider world to address cultural and societal issues.
I like to examine the logocentric perception we have of meaning. How this meaning is then used as a strategy by the powerful to manipulate thought and action. I use recognisable and newly created symbols and icons to investigate, challenge and sometimes deconstruct established norms of cognitive coding.
My practice being simply a conversation with myself and the world, and as such, the creation of myth, meaning and the re-use and recontextualisation of works constitute the present 'end' product.
Examining power and consent inevitably involves looking at propaganda and myth. Deconstructing information, 'fact', icons and iconography, is essential in this quest for universal truths.
Analysing and removing (editing) elements and ideas from narratives is the source of creation for me. The 'art' comes from the area between what is 'known' and what is felt.
'Belief', and it's effect on oneself, -and by extension others, is arguably more important to the individual and society in the post-truth digital age as it was pre-religion because our beliefs, and therefore actions, have implications globally.
My process and practice attempts to engage with this enigma in a visual and visceral language, with mark-making acting as a kind of contemplative and cathartic attempt to comprehend, explore and illuminate
Andy Smith 26.1.19
Artist CV
Work
Established as a self-employed artist August 1984 through to present day
Working for Bolton, Bury and Wigan borough councils, Youth Services, Percent for Art, Artists In Schools etc.... The Princes Trust, private and funded commissions.
Traditionally working on large paintings and murals. Community and public projects.
Education
BA Fine Art (2014)
MA Fine Art (2015) Fine Art. Bolton.
Awards
NADFAS (NW) Prize and Neo Graduate show prize 2015.
Exhibitions
Subsequently exhibited at Neo:, Bankley, Castlefield Gallery, PSMirabel, Cathedral Hanging Ditch, (all Manchester), Old Courts (Wigan), Arts Forum Paderborn (Germany), New Mills Festival, FAB (Bath), Cross St Gallery (solo), Holy Biscuit (Newcastle) World of Glass (St. Helens) Raum fur Kunst (Paderborn)
Independent candidate, General Election 2015, Bolton West. The painting Manifesto Without Words was displayed and obliterated during the Castlefield Gallery show Hung, Drawn and Curated.
Groups
Co-founder of STANDARD Collective. Seven artists, working with a variety of approaches to create an eclectic, newspaper-style analysis of politics and society. Two shows: Standard at neo: gallery, Bolton (July 2017) and Objection at Raum fur Kunst, Paderborn, Germany (July 2018)
Associate member of Cross Street Arts, Wigan.
Associate member of Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.
Contact Me