Ian Rayer-Smith - Solo Mayfair Show

​The overall winner of this year’s “It’s Art Call” Prize – a new competition launched in 2016 by The Cult House – Ian Rayer-Smith is exhibiting a new series of paintings and sculptures at Mayfair’s D Contemporary Gallery from 31 August to 9 September.

Strongly influenced by the abstract expressionist movement as much as by old masters paintings, Rayer-Smith might use classical references as a starting point but ends up fusing abstraction and figurative to create work that succeeds in being both surreal and romantic.

“I am interested in organic forms in a state of decomposition. Soft and amorphous, they accentuate the tactile sense of nature. I begin each painting or sculpture with specific outcomes in mind, but allow myself to be directed by the piece I am making, embracing each accident and creating something new in the process.”

Always avoiding any notion of repetition in order to create something new and surprising, Rayer-Smith works fast, intuitively and obsessively, producing works that suggest a sense of other worldliness, something that is also reflected in the titles he gives to his paintings: “I wish I could fly right up to the sky, but I can’t”, “Accidentally eating space cake” or even the mysterious “Oojamaflip”.
 
Ian Rayer-Smith’s solo exhibition from the 31 August - 9 September.
D Contemporary
23 Grafton Street
Mayfair