JOHN SMITH

The centrepiece of the exhibition is Being John Smith (27 mins, 2024), a personal work in which the artist reflects on the ordinariness of his name and its profound impact on his sense of self. Through a mix of humour and melancholic self-reflection, Smith navigates his lower middle class roots and his rise to prominence as an influential avant-garde filmmaker.

As Toronto International Film Festival curator Jesse Cumming observed, Being John Smith is ‘a deceptively wry and deeply felt work’ in which Smith ‘grapples with his own mortality and legacy through a minimal, unassuming deployment of text, image and voice’. But through this autobiographical focus the film also addresses issues that affect us all, offering poignant reflections on the human condition, the state of the world and the passage of time. The exhibition also features a selection of prints and artefacts related to the film.

John Smith was born in Walthamstow, London in 1952 and lives and works in London. He studied at North-East London Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art, after which he became an active member of the London Filmmakers Co-op. Inspired by conceptual art, structural film, and the immersive power of narrative and the spoken word, Smith has developed an extensive body of work that subverts the boundaries between documentary and fiction, representation and abstraction. Often rooted in everyday life, his meticulously crafted films examine and expose the language of cinema itself.

Since 1972, Smith has created over sixty films, videos and installations, which have been exhibited internationally and awarded major prizes at many prominent film festivals. He received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists in 2011 and won Film London’s Jarman Award in 2013. Selected solo exhibitions include Secession, Vienna, Austria (upcoming, 2025); Kate MacGarry, London (2025, 2020 and 2016); Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, Germany (2022); Cornubian Arts & Science Trust, Cornwall, UK (2020); Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2017, 2015, 2013, 2012 and 2010); Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK (2016); Centre d’Art Contemporain de Noisy-le-Sec, Paris (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art, Leipzig, Germany (2015); Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2012); Weserburg Museum for Modern Art, Bremen, Germany (2012); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA (2011); Royal College of Art Galleries, London (2010) and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2006). Smith’s work is included in public collections such as Tate, Arts Council, MoMA New York, FRAC Île de France, Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, and Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz.