These industrial inspired paintings are a pictorial investigation into Newcastle’s revitalisation. They evolved from a deep interest in social and cultural issues intersecting with the history of Newcastle’s built environment. Architecture is an accessible public language; it is a tangible record of the way we live, and we all have a relationship to it. Over the past 18 months I have documented redevelopment sites where heritage architecture is affected by Facadism; the process where the entirety of an old historic building (considered to be of cultural or historic worth) is gutted while retaining the external face. The abstracted subject of my works is site responsive, containers for exploration and deconstruction. Through painterly processes including masking, layering, erasure, pressure, and reduction, irregular abstract forms, angles, layers, lines, and shadows appear through the fractured and ruptured surface ground. I pose the question what will stay and what will go?

Bio
Born in 1975 in Kent, UK
Resides and works in Newcastle, AUS
United Kingdom-born, Newcastle-based artist Stuart Smith was trained as an artist and educator, having graduated with a Master of Fine Art from the National Art School, Sydney, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Art and Design 14-19) from Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. His artistic practice utilises painting and photography to address contemporaneous issues of car culture, militarization, warfare, architectural space, and heritage.
Stuart Smith has been exhibiting regularly for over twenty years with an upcoming show at Straitjacket gallery Newcastle (2025). Solo exhibitions include Model Society, Bird’s Gallery, Melbourne (2014). Recent group shows include Square, MaySpace, Sydney (2019); Still Life, Gallery Klei, Sydney (2016); Gyeonggi ANSAN International Art Fair, South Korea (2015); Motorclassica, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne (2014); and The Lab, Art Pharmacy, Sydney (2014). Smith has been a finalist in numerous awards including the EMSLA Art Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery (2017, 2016, 2013, 2012) and Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Gallery (2018, 2017).
Education:
2023-24: Diploma of Photography and Digital Media, Hunter St TAFE, Newcastle 2016-18: MA in Fine Art (Painting) at National Art School, Sydney AUS 2007-08: PGCE in Education (Art & Design 14-18) at Canterbury Christ Church Uni, UK 1995-98: BA in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking at University of Bretton Hall, Leeds, UK 1994-95: Diploma in Art and Design - Kent Institute of Art and Design, UK
Selected exhibitions:
2021 Square 2 (group show), Five Walls, Melbourne, AUS
2020 (Re)arrangements (group show), Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Sydney, AUS 2019 Square (group show), May Space, Sydney, AUS Replay (group show), Creative Space, Sydney, AUS 2018 MFA Exhibition (group show), National Art School, Sydney, AUS Calleen Art Award (group show), Cowra Regional Gallery, AUS 2017 EMSLA Art Award (group show), Wollongong Art Gallery, AUS Calleen Art Award (group show), Cowra Regional Gallery, AUS