Leslie Smith Gallery

Exhibitor's Artists:

• Banksy
  Biography : Artistic Career Banksy, a street artist whose identity remains unknown, is believed to have been born in Bristol, England, around 1974. Banksy began his career as a graffiti artist in the early 1990s, in Bristol's graffiti gang DryBreadZ Crew. Although his early work was largely freehand, Banksy used stencils on occasion. In the late '90s, he began using stencils predominantly. His work became more widely recognized around Bristol and in London, as his signature style developed. 

Bansky's artwork is characterized by striking images, often combined with slogans. His work often engages political themes, satirically critiquing war, capitalism, hypocrisy and greed. Common subjects include rats, apes, policemen, members of the royal family, and children. In addition to his two-dimensional work, Banksy is known for his installation artwork. One of the most celebrated of these pieces, which featured a live elephant painted with a Victorian wallpaper pattern, sparked controversy among animal rights activists. 

Other pieces have drawn attention for their edgy themes or the boldness of their execution. Banksy's work on the West Bank barrier, between Israel and Palestine, received significant media attention in 2005. He is also known for his use of copyrighted material and subversion of classic images. An example of this is Banksy's version of Monet's famous series of water lilies paintings, adapted by Banksy to include drifting trash and debris.

 Banksy's worldwide fame has transformed his artwork from acts of vandalism to sought-after high art pieces. Journalist Max Foster has referred to the rising prices of graffiti as street art as "the Banksy effect." Interest in Banksy escalated with the release of the 2010 documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award.

 In October 2013, Banksy took to the streets of New York City. There he pledged to create a new piece Detailed Description : Banksy, a street artist whose identity remains unknown, is believed to have been born in Bristol, England, around 1974. He rose to prominence for his provocative stenciled pieces in the late 1990s. Banksy is the subject of a 2010 documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, which examines the relationship between commercial and street art.
  Also exhibited by: Keszler Gallery,
• Emily Kame Kngwarreye
• Kudditji Kngwarreye
  Biography : Like his famous older sister, the late great Emily Kngwarreye, Kudditji Kngwarreye (pronounced goo-beh-chee) has a deserved reputation as an innovator yet at the same time being a well respected artist. Born around 1928, Kudditji Kngwarreye had a traditional bush upbringing in the Utopia region before starting a long career as a stockman and mine worker. As an Anmatyerre elder and custodian of many important Dreamings, Kudditji was originally inspired by the work coming out of Papunya to paint his own Dreamings, telling of the travels and law of the Emu ancestors. Starting in 1986, his precisely dotted Emu Dreaming paintings, which reflected his traditional upbringing and utilised the very fine dots and symbols, became sought after by major galleries in Australia. Then, intrigued by the possibilities of acrylic paint and the kaleidoscope of colours now available to him, Kudditji began to experiment with the synthetic polymer paint to eradicate the pointillist style altogether and to use a heavily loaded paint brush to sweep broadly across the canvas in stages, similar to the western landscape plane. These paintings were romantic images of his country, accentuating the colour and form of the landscape including the depth of the sky in the wet season and in the reds and oranges of the shimmering summer heat. These ground-breaking paintings expressed Kudditji’s extensive knowledge and love of his country in a way never seen previously. Some commentators have seen a strong similarity with his sister Emily's work - but it is not clear who was the first to set out on this path. The demand for his earlier, detailed style, however, moved Kudditji to return to it, and it was only in 2003 at the age of 74 that he began to exhibit the extraordinary, saturated colour paintings that have seen his reputation grow nationally and internationally. His two dimensional spatial constructions innocently refer to Rothko and modernists of the twentieth century. The paintings Exhibition : Like his famous older sister, the late great Emily Kngwarreye, Kudditji Kngwarreye (pronounced goo-beh-chee) has a deserved reputation as an innovator yet at the same time being a well respected artist.
  
  Born around 1928, Kudditji Kngwarreye had a traditional bush upbringing in the Utopia region before starting a long career as a stockman and mine worker. As an Anmatyerre elder and custodian of many important Dreamings, Kudditji was originally inspired by the work coming out of Papunya to paint his own Dreamings, telling of the travels and law of the Emu ancestors.
  
  Starting in 1986, his precisely dotted Emu Dreaming paintings, which reflected his traditional upbringing and utilised the very fine dots and symbols, became sought after by major galleries in Australia. Then, intrigued by the possibilities of acrylic paint and the kaleidoscope of colours now available to him, Kudditji began to experiment with the synthetic polymer paint to eradicate the pointillist style altogether and to use a heavily loaded paint brush to sweep broadly across the canvas in stages, similar to the western landscape plane. These paintings were romantic images of his country, accentuating the colour and form of the landscape including the depth of the sky in the wet season and in the reds and oranges of the shimmering summer heat. These ground-breaking paintings expressed Kudditji’s extensive knowledge and love of his country in a way never seen previously. Some commentators have seen a strong similarity with his sister Emily's work - but it is not clear who was the first to set out on this path. The demand for his earlier, detailed style, however, moved Kudditji to return to it, and it was only in 2003 at the age of 74 that he began to exhibit the extraordinary, saturated colour paintings that have seen his reputation grow nationally and internationally.
  
  His two dimensional spatial constructions innocently refer to Rothko and modernists of the twentieth century. The paintings
• Shay Kun
  Biography : Shay Kun is an Israeli-born and New York-based artist. With both parents being artists, he was introduced to the artistic field at a young age and has been painting fervently since childhood. He earned his B.F.A. at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (1998), and went on to receive his Master's degree at Goldsmiths College in London, England (2000). The culmination of his artistic process was the development of an acute awareness of his specific place in today’s visual culture - somewhere between the historical concept of fine art and the contemporary digital and electronic imagery so central to his generation’s experience. Characteristic are his naturalistically painted and romantic landscapes - in style and subject matter reminiscent of the Hudson River School - which always have an artificial and sometimes even absurd taste to it. Kun has been showing extensively in the past several years on the international circuit, mainly across the U.S. and Europe. Group exhibitions as well as important solo shows. In 2009 Kun's work was exhibited in the show 'Animamix' at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Shanghai, China. Exhibition : Selected Solo Exhibitions
  
  2014: Untitled, Michael Schultz Gallery, Berlin, Germany
  
  2013: An Extra, Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
  Feast and Famine, Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, IL
  
  2012: Domestic Sticky Wildlife, Martine Chaisson Gallery, New Orleans, LA
  Be First, Be Smarter or Cheat, Benrimon Contemporary, New York, NY
  
  2011: Rebreather, Lamotagne Gallery, Boston, MA
  VOLTA NY, 'Take Off', New York, NY
  
  2010: Exfoliations, Benrimon Contemporary, New York, NY
  Overcast, Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
  Slack Tide, Lamontagne Gallery, Boston, MA
  
  2009: Opportunities multiply as they are seized, David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
  
  2008: Nails & Feathers, BUIA Gallery, New York, NY
  
  2007: Old Flames Don't Die Out They Build New Fires, Tavi Dresdner Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
  Perversion Is The Love We Feel When Others Feel Love, SEVENTEEN Gallery, London, UK
  
  2006: Melting Midlands, BUIA Gallery, New York, NY
  
  2005: I Care Because You do Too, BUIA Gallery, New York, NY
  
  1999: Desktop-The Reunion, Efrat Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
  
  1992: Gesher Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
  
  Furthermore, Kun participated at many international group exhibitions from 1998-2013. 
• Frank van der Meijden
• Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa
• Kayi Kayi Nampitjinpa
• Pelita Napurrula
• Pablo Picasso
  
  Also exhibited by: Contessa Gallery, ARCHEUS / POST-MODERN, Jane Kahan Gallery, Also represented by: Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Jerome Zodo Contemporary , KM Fine Arts | Chicago - Los Angeles, Meyerovich Gallery,
• Gavin Rain
  Biography : Gavin Rain was born in Cape Town on 23 March 1971. He studied Art and Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town in the 80’s and 90’s. Rain has been painting his whole live, but started with pointillism around 2003/2004. He is influenced by Seurat, Russian avant garde art of the 1900’s and many architects. Earlier in his live, he planned to study architecture, to try and combine his two interests: art and mathematics. In 2011, Rain participated in the 54th Venice Biennale, in the Republic of Costa Rica pavilion with an original portrait of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2013, he is present in the Republic of Bangladesh pavilion with a work entitled 'Lena'. Exhibition : 2013 Venice Biennale
  2012 Solo: Venice
  2012 Ciao Milan, Milan
  2011 Venice Biennale
  2011 Art Hamptons
  2011 Art Chicago
  2011 Arte Accessibile, Milan
  2011 MiArt, Milan
  2011 Per Capita, Tuscany
  2011 ART van der brugge, Zug
  2011 Per Capita, Arezzo
  2010 Arte in Fiera, Belluno
  2010 MiArt Art Now!, Milan
  2010 Padova Fiere, Padova
  2010 FineArt 2010, Kizo gallery, Kwazulu-Natal
  2010 With Keith Calder, E-Piphany Fine Art, Cape Town
  2010 Angels, Grand Provence, Franschhoek
  2009 African Wave exhibition II, Venice
  2009 Solo: WorldArt gallery, Cape Town
  2009 African Wave exhibition I, Trieste
  2008 African Wave exhibition 0, Treviso
  2008 Solo: VEO gallery, Cape Town
  2008 Erotica Exhibition, Kizo Gallery, Kwazulu-Natal
  2008 Solo Demonstration: Heritage Festival, Kizo Gallery, Kwazulu-Natal
  2007 Solo: Patrice Boussekey Eclectic Gallery, Cape Town
  2007 Solo: WorldArt gallery, Johannesburg.
  2006 Solo: VEO gallery, Cape Town
  2006 Group exhibition: in the Flesh!, KKNK,
  2005 VEO gallery with Richard Scott, Cape Town Detailed Description : Technique Up close, Rain’s paintings consist of small concentric dots painted in different colors of acrylic paint. From a distance your eye puts these colors together into one. The further the viewer steps back, the more clear the portrait becomes. He starts his paintings by making a sketch of the portrait he wants to paint. To decide the place of the dots on the canvas, he either uses a grid, made of strings, or projection. The grid takes about ten hours to make, but is more accurate then using projection, so Rain still uses both techniques. Then he picks the colors for the final dots. He starts by deciding the final color that he wants a dot to be and starts working backwards. Rain has a list of 14.000 different dots that he has made. Out of this list, he picks the combination that creates the color he wants. Another important part of the technique is changing each dot size. The white canvas Rain uses as a background means that the smaller the dot, the more white background around it. So the bigger the dots, the darker an area gets and the smaller the dots, the lighter the area becomes. This, combined with the distant final color each dot makes is how the image is created. However, the colors of separate dots will merge together into a new color as well. So, it's not just each dot but also a combination of dots that makes the color. Message Rain’s objective is to broaden people’s visual and cognitive horizons by showing them the fantastic and impossible. By combining his origins, his studies, aptitudes and personal talent, Rain has invented an art that is both unique and participative so that all who look at one of his paintings can perceive the convergence of two opposing pictorial styles: the abstractness of the multitude of colorful concentric circles that thicken into dense and imperfect dots in relief, and the figurative aspect of the image that is defined by the sum of these same dots as the viewer takes a few steps back. It is p

  

  Elizabeth, 2013
• Maayke Schuitema
• Miguel Segall
• Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri
• Paddy Lewis Tjapanangka
  Biography : Australian Aboriginal artist Paddy Lewis was born in the late 1920’s west of Mt. Doreen and Yuendumu in Northern Territory. In the mid 1950’s, Paddy and his family were forcibly relocated to the settlement of Yuendumu in line with the government’s assimilation programme. Unable and unwilling to adapt to their new lifestyle, the family moved back into the desert. Not long after their ‘escape’ though, they were again rounded up and brought back to Yuendumu.Paddy is an elder from the Warlpiri language group. His traditional country lies North West of Nyirripi, approximately 500 km from Alice Springs. This area is a remarkably flat space, almost everywhere allowing a view as far as they eye can see for a full 360 degrees. This environment shaped not only his sense of self but also his visual and therefore artistic consciousness. Paddy is a tribal custodian for the site referred to as Mina Mina salt lake which is also painted by his daughters Dorothy Napangardi and Margaret Lewis Napangardi. Paddy started painting for the Warlukurlangu Arts Centre in the 1980‘s. His traditional style for depicting the iconography associated with the Mina Mina dreaming site has provided a close historical record of the designs used for the traditional sand mosaics during tribal ceremony.
• George ‘Hairbrush’ Tjungurrayi
  Biography : George Tjungarrayi was born around 1947 in the bush in the Central en Western Desert of Australia. He started painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1976 and has since developed into one of the master painters of contemporary Pintupi art. Fine lines and beautiful geometric patterns with which he depicts the traditional Tingari Cycle of his spiritual ancestors characterize George Tjungurrayi’s style. Exhibition : National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
  Australia
Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia

  Groninger Museum, The Netherlands

  Musee des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, Paris, France
  Solo Exhibiotion, Sister, Brother Nyarrumparra, Papunya Tula Artist Gallery, Alice Springs, Australia
  Detailed Description : George Tjungurrayi’s distinctive style and theme represents the landscape of a soakage water site in bloom, north-west of Lake Mackay in the Western Desert of Australia. The artist’s inspiration comes from Dreamings, stories about the spiritual ancestors of the Aboriginals.
• Don Tjungurrayi
• Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula
• Barbara Weir
• Tommy Watson Yannima
• Zhuang Hong Yi
  Biography : Zhuang Hong Yi was born in 1962 in Sichuan, China. After he finished his artistic education at the Sichuan College of Fine Arts in Chonggin, he and his wife Lu Luo, also an artist, moved to Groningen, The Netherlands. In Groningen he became an apprentice at the Minerva Academy of Arts. After finishing his studies in 1997 he quickly received recognition as an artist. Many solo-exhibitions followed, one of the most prominent being a show in 2001 in the Groninger Museum, which is one of the most important, internationally renowned Dutch museums for contemporary art. After this show Zhuang received invitations to present his spectacular works in museum and galleries all over the world. In 2007 the Groninger Museum honored him and his wife Lu Luo with a large exhibition called ‘Atelier Beijing’. Currently Zhuang and his wife live in The Hague with their two children, their studios are located in Amsterdam en Beijing. In his work Zhuang creates large monumental landscapes or portraits, drawn and painted on rice paper. Depending of the result, the works are finalized in a later phase by editing, painting or cutting the paper.
• Zivo