Richard Smith was born in Edinburgh, Scotland but moved with his family to South Africa at a young age. Studying graphic design at the Johannesburg School of Art in the 1960s, followed by his work in 1968 for the Sunday Times in Johannesburg, Smith produced politically important works for the underground movement. He held his first solo exhibition in London in 1971 at the Arts Theatre Club. He was Standard Bank’s cartoonist of the year in 1980 and 1984 and was resident at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris in 1990. For over 50 years he has produced works on canvas and on paper and has exhibited consistently with works included in important public and private collections.

Richard Smith’s paintings are often accidental and over many months a story and individuality will appear. He is an authentic voice where the act of painting is foremost and the form and content are secondary. Although his finished works are richly layered, he wants, in his own words, ‘the brush to spend as little time on the canvas as possible’. A fearsome self-critic, paintings can sometimes take months or even years to appear

‘They’re weird and monstrous and they’re oddly compelling. Sometimes they’re constructed in a multi-faceted layout. At other times, they present themselves to you in surreal poses….there’s humour there…. it’s humour pummeled by bleakness revealing echoes of what it was that gave Smith the potency he enjoyed as a political cartoonist’ – Robyn Sassen

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 No Signal, No Message, No Secret, EBONY/CURATED Franschhoek, South Africa

2017 Ghost in the Machine, EBONY/CURATED Cape Town, South Africa

2016 Faceless, EBONY/CURATED Franschhoek, South Africa

2015 New Paintings EBONY/CURATED Cape Town, South Africa

2014 Rapid Eye Movement, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa Lizamore and Associates, Johannesburg, South Africa

2012 Retrospective Exhibition, University of Cape Town, Irma Stern Museum Cape Town, South Africa
Artspace, Johannesburg, South Africa 2010 Artspace Johannesburg, South Africa

2009 iArt Cape Town, South Africa

2008 Artspace, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007 Artspace, Johannesburg, South Africa
Potchefstroom University Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa 2006 Cultivaria, Paarl, South Africa

2005 ‘Dialogues’ – Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa

2003 Jill Yakas Gallery, Athens, Greece

1993 – 1994 Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1991 South African Association of Arts, Pretoria (Paris work), South Africa

1988 Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1972 Solo Show of Cartoons – Arts Theatre Club, Leicester Square, UK

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
'An Endless Night', curated by Anelisa Mangcu, The Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa
'Room With a View', Curated by Karen Elkington, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, South Africa

2019 ‘A Smaller Scale’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2017 ‘From the Horses Mouth’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Ed Cross Fine Art, London Art Fair, London, UK

2016 ‘Projects’, EBONY/CURATED, Franschhoek, South Africa
SAADA Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 SAADA Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2014 Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Carol Lee Fine Art, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011 Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

2010 Miele Art Gallery Johannesburg, South Africa
Grand Provence Franschhoek, South Africa

2009 Grand Provence, Franschhoek, South Africa
Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
Work chosen for the South African Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria

2008 MUSE ’08 – Group Show KKNK Oudshoorn, South Africa
iArt Cape Town, South Africa
Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

2007 Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
Bell Roberts, Lourensford, Somerset West, South Africa
Cultivaria, Paarl, South Africa
KKNK, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Commission – 6 works for Rand Merchant Bank

2006 Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa ‘Portraits’ at AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2005 Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

2002 Omma Centre of Contemporary Art, Chania, Crete
Living in Cephalonia, Greece

2001 Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1995 -2000 Represented by Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa and Galleri Viktoria, Gottenburg, Sweden

1990-1991 Resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
Luxtor’s Fine Art, Oxfordshire, UK
Black Boy Gallery, West Wycombe, UK

1990 Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1986 Everard Read Gallery with Paul Stopforth and Hillary Graham, Johannesburg, South Africa

1976 South African Association of Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa

1985 Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

COLLECTIONS

Rand Merchant Bank
Sasol
Sanlam
FNB
University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Free State
University of Cape Town

PUBLICATIONS

2017 ‘Richard Smith’, Published by EBONY/CURATED

2012 ‘Richard Smith’. Published to coincide with Irma Stern Museum Retrospective

2009 ‘What’s so Funny?’ Under the skin of South African Cartooning by Andy Mason

1999 Nelson Mandela, A life in Cartoons

1988 Rhodes Journalism Review

1988 Dictionary of South African Painters and Sculptors – Everard Read

1982 – 1989 Chief Illustrator – Leadership Magazine, Johannesburg
Standard Bank Cartoonist of the Year Award, (’80 and ’89)

Represented on Cape Town Triennial (’85 and ‘88).

1987 Cartoons and Illustrations for the Harvard Business Review

1977 – 1984 Cartoonist for the Sunday Express, Johannesburg.
Illustrator for: Optima, Management, Financial Mail, Leadership and Energos

1968 – 1969 Cartoonist – Sunday Times, Johannesburg

1973 – 1976 Daily political cartoon strip – Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg
Published book of Cartoons ‘Smith and Abbott’s Greatest Hits’

1972 The Cartoon (A short history of Graphic Comedy and Satire) by John Geipel

1970 – 1972 London, UK Freelance Cartoonist for: Punch, BBC, Time Out and Ink, UK