Keir Smith

Keir Smith was born in Kent in 1950. He studied fine art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1969-73) and at Chelsea School of Art (1973-75). His academic interest in art of the Renaissance - painting, sculpture and architecture - is long established, but has emerged only gradually as a presence in his drawing and sculpture.

Working without an agent or dealer, Smith made his way as an artist through public commissions in the 1980s when sculpture trails and the desire for site specific sculpture prevailed. He was appointed artist in residence at Grizedale Forest, Cumbria in 1979 and made a number of publicly sited sculptures including Towards the Open Sea for South Hill Park in Bracknell and Dendron for Yorkshire Sculpture Park, both in 1983. Smith excelled in his response to such commissions, and in finding an apposite solution which referred to the history of the site and its physical nature, as with The Iron Road 1986 for the Forest of Dean where carved wooden railway sleepers lie in the place of a disused track, bearing references to former lives and times particular to the forest. His most recent commission is a work for Henrietta House in the West End of London. Here a sculptural frieze depicting fifteen buildings related stylistically, such as Hawksmoor's Pyramid, The Radcliffe Library and Canary Wharf, to mention only three, flows with and is relevant to the architecture. In addition to the commissions, Keir Smith has exhibited his work regularly in Britain in both solo and group shows. Particularly important was Flint Sepulchre at the University of Warwick in 1994.

Drawing serves Keir Smith's sculpture in an indirect way. Long periods are devoted to drawing, not to find solutions for specific sculptures, but to develop ideas. The drawings, in pencil and watercolour, have all the intensity of his sculpture and are no less a result of concentrated activity. Drawings of a different kind fill his sketchbooks and are used in the development of the sculptures.