John Smith

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News

Beneath the Pavement, the Beach
De Warande, Turnhout, Belgium

6 March – 31 August 2026

The Bonnard Syndrome, or the Impermanence of Artworks
Frac Île-de-France, Paris, 14 February 2026 – 19 July 2026

14 February – 19 July 2026

Louder, Taller, Uglier, Weirder – Hearing the Weeds Grow
Galerie im Turm, Berlin

11 February – 15 March 2026

Ways of Seeing
Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland

17 October 2025 – 30 December 2030

Biography

Born 1952, Walthamstow, London. Lives and works in London.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2025

Being John Smith, Secession, Vienna
Being John Smith, CAST, Helston, Cornwall
Being John Smith, CONDO hosting Tanya Leighton, Kate MacGarry, London

2022

John Smith: Introspective (1972 – 2022), The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London
Waldeinsamkeit: Films from the 21st Century, Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg, Germany

2020

S.O.S – Recent Films by John Smith, Kate MacGarry, London
John Smith Programme of Short Films, CAST, Cornwall

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026

The Bonnard Syndrome, or the Impermanence of Artworks, Frac Île-de-France, Paris
Beneath the Pavement, the Beach, De Warande, Turnhout, Belgium
Louder, Taller, Uglier, Weirder – Hearing the Weeds Grow, Galerie im Turm, Berlin
Words of a Poem Should Be Like Glass, Hunt Kastner, Prague

2025

Ways of Seeing, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
Off Season, Margate Visitor Information Centre, Margate

2024

We Saw an Endless Cycle, Hayy Jameel, Jeddah
Walk this way, Kunstmuseum Ravensburg
Seven Rooms and a Garden – Rashid Johnson and the Moderna Museet Collection, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
And All Our World is Dew, AGC Art Gallery, Athens
Drop It’, BCMA Gallery, Berlin
Das Erste Mal, Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover
But So It Goes, Closing Soon, Athens
Small World Cinema, Sculpture Center, New York
CONDO, Kate MacGarry, London

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Press

00:00

John Smith, The Black Tower, 1985–87

16 mm film, colour, sound, 24 minutes, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Excerpt (3 minutes 44 seconds)

“Smith’s intention was to show how, just as the real black tower near his home could be seen from many different angles in apparently different settings – a housing estate, a prison, a churchyard – so language can construct any number of backdrops to a phenomenon, thereby altering atmosphere and interpretation. Smith applies the subjectivity of language to the objecthood of the black tower, converting it from a banal piece of industrial architecture to a cipher of paranormal potential. By simply filming the tower in all its different settings and applying a monologue over the top that mystifies this process, we are led to believe that the tower is beleaguering the protagonist, following him, or, at least, that he is deluded into believing that he is being followed. Although we know that this illusion is down to the power of editing alone, we happily half-abandon this knowledge for the thrill of the subterfuge.”

– Sally O’Reilly, catalogue essay for ‘Return of the Black Tower (after John Smith)’ by Jennet Thomas, PEER Gallery 2007

John Smith, The Black Tower, 1985–87

16 mm film, colour, sound, 24 minutes, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

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