REPOSITION

UITSTALLING ART GALLERY

MARCEL HABETSLAAN 26, GENK, BELGIUM

17 JULY - 23 AUGUST 2020

This extensive collection of Lionel Smit's artworks opens with the Uitstalling gallery on 17th July.

To reposition implies a movement from one location to another, and it speaks of some adjustment or alteration that, be it major or minor, caused something or some idea to travel and shift. Lionel Smit’s Reposition features a body of work that explores this theme by engaging with physical and ideological forms of relocation.

Every country has their own sense of identity with unique cultures and viewpoints. How South Africans view their local art will be different to how Europeans view it, as there is a sub-context of knowing the history, having a sense of familiarity and cultural awareness. So, in essence, you can say that one’s interpretation of a body of work changes considering where from where it is viewed. With a different viewpoint, the work changes.

As Smit explains, various acts of repositioning informed this exhibition. For their final viewing in the Uitstalling Art Gallery, Smit’s work had to be relocated from one continent to another, thus travelling in a time when a global pandemic made it impossible for humans to move with the same ease that they once enjoyed (or even thought of as normal). Smit’s work also activates another interpretation of reposition, one that comes into play when one reads the Belgian and South African contexts next to one another. Each country has its unique viewpoints, cultural heritage and sense of identity, and just a repositioning in terms of context and locality changes the way that the viewer engages with the subject matter of these paintings. Smit revels in such idiosyncrasies and sees them as points of exchange – as places where the viewer has to reposition themselves in relation to that which they see, whilst bearing in mind that the same work means something else when seen in another context.

In the individual paintings, we also see how different layers of paint and pigment are positioned next to, over and in contrast to one another. The resultant image becomes a fine balancing act in which the face of the female subject emerges through the careful combination of brushstrokes. While some paintings explore the human form in explosions of colour and texture, others test the amount of visual information that is actually needed to render a face discernible. Against the grain of the linen canvas, each painted face materializes to reveal a character of its own, whether it’s one in which the subject emerges as wistful, shy, engaging or contemplative.

As Smit wishes to remind us with this exhibition, we are, as humans, part of a continuous and inevitable process of repositioning ourselves and of being repositioned. Be it of our own volition or due to forces beyond our control, our lives – our bodies, our identities, our stories of self – are always in flux exactly because we are the product of countless repositions. We know ourselves through such changes and, like the rings of a tree, we are ever bearing the mark of our previous shapes and extremities. In fact, it reminds us of our ability to change when needed and be resilient when we can. This exhibition celebrates our capacity for weathering the storms of our time – for braving those forces that make it difficult to imagine a life elsewhere. 

Dr Ernst van der Wal, PhD (Visual Arts)
Senior Lecturer: Visual Arts, Stellenbosch University

Uitstalling Art Gallery

Uitstalling Art Gallery’ deals in a distinctive combination of painting, drawing and sculpture. Thanks to their local network in South-Africa they select artists with a proven record and an extended biography. The location for ‘Uitstalling’ was chosen carefully on the site of a previous coal mine with an extension to a private Victorian style house. A perfect spot to experience contemporary art in combination with an intriguing environment. Uitstalling wants people to experience quality above all and in all they do. The ‘Uitstalling’ aims for a mix of international established and emerging artists that exceed the ordinary limits of art. The gallery combines art in a way that visitors will be moved and only supports artists that they love themselves.

For inquiries at the gallery:

Uitstalling Art Gallery
+32(0)89 84 84 20
danny@uitstalling.com

For further information https://www.uitstalling.com/lionelsmit-registration