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e first time I spoke with Lionel Smit, we discussed his artistic aesthetic—more specifically, his sculpture work, which is loosely based around the idea of creating classical figurative forms in a new, contemporary way. Smit's sculptures have been featured in public exhibitions around the world, including "MORPHOUS," a double-headed bronze sculpture installed in Union Square, New York in June 2016 which is currently on display at the Grounds For Sculpture in New Jersey. But what I didn't realize at the time, was that his approach to sculpture was heavily influenced by his painting process— adding layers to clay as you would paint to a painting. is time, Smit returns with his latest series entitled "Manipulated Image," an abstract collection of paintings influenced by technology—exploring how the digital age has influenced art and how we create it. Using a combination of silkscreen, oil layering and digital work, Smit's creative process is very much an experimentation crossover of old and new mediums—an exploration of different and repeated imagery. Heralded for his contemporary portrayal of female subjects, "Manipulated Image" is both a call back to his dramatic portraits of anonymous women from the Cape Malay community and at the same time, a departure and entirely new multimedia horizon for the 37-year-old artist. Smit's own story is one of creative vision from a young age—the Pretoria-born artist was never formally trained save for his time at Pro Arte High School for the Arts. Growing up, Smit's father, Anton, worked as a sculptor just a stone's throw from their family's home—a circumstance which no doubt le an impression. Today, he works from the comfort of his Cape Town studio and his work is revered by people all over the world. Smit draws inspiration from what lies beneath the surface of the everyday human face, reflecting themes of what he calls "the disintegrating construction of identity within our increasingly globalized world." Growing up, your father's art studio was adjacent to your home. How did that jumpstart your creativity? Did you envision a career as an artist from an early age? I think it played a major role and had a major influence on me that my father's studio was adjacent to the home, as there was always creativity happening in my environment. Sculptures, paintings and drawings were constantly being made around me. ere were always students and apprentices to my father in the stu- dio—I think I drew from that energy. I don't really remember deciding to become an artist from an early age, it was just something that was a part of our home and that I did. I went to an art high school because I loved creating, which eventually led to my becoming an artist. You could say I ended up doing what I knew best. Your latest exhibition "Manipulated Image" explores how the digital age influences artists. What drew you to this idea? I think the concept surrounding "Ma- nipulated Image" and the idea of how the digital age has influenced artists is something that progressively grew from using computers and digital photographs in creating my works—on a very basic level, even. It is something that I suppose became apparent to me from the screen printing process, due to how I started using more digital procedures to achieve the final product. It evolved into a theme through these silkscreen preparations over the years. I realized that this forms part of a lot of artists' processes, several artists have a digital influence in their work and I think I just wanted to bring that to the surface and emphasize that idea. V U E N J . C O M 93

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