Art Today Magazine interview

April 02, 2018

Nick was approached by Art Today Magazine with some questions about his upcoming show titled Priceless, opening 20th April at Lawrence Alkin Gallery. You can read the interview b y clicking here

Be sure to add your email in the subscribe section of the contacts page to receive the show catalogue.

INSTAGRAM FEED @nicksmith_art

hazardous!... #papercuts #nicksmithart

Back in 2003 I was at Coventry university in the Uk. Internet was limited... I didn’t have it in my digs, but did have access through the university library. I knew about SB dunks through this mad wee shop in the custard factory in Birmingham and already had a few silver box pairs. The Heineken dunk was an enigma. To the extent that folks couldn’t even list the shoe by its actual name on eBay due to a legal case going in between Nike and Heineken. I placed my bid several times on eBay using the library internet... got ripped off twice, refunded via PayPal... and finally scored a pair in my size around July 2003 just before we split for summer break. The postie rang the bell... he wanted a customs import charge from the US of about £30... money I didn’t have. I had to get my Room mate to write a check for me at the door. I opened the box and there they were, sacred shoes like never before. I think I bought them new for £180. Then wore them to death and then sold them about 5 years later to a dude in Sweden for £180... the price had gone up! Who buys trashed shoes for £180? I’m not going to go into the detail on how I scored this DS US11 pair, but it was recently and it’s significant and they’re worth quite a bit more now... crazy eh!? I’d love to say I’ve denounced materialism but this shoe reminds daily me to consider what it is I value and where I’ve come from. It sits on my shelf, occasionally worn but mostly looking back at me. #heinekendunk #nikesbdunk

Pleased to announce I have 2 new prints available online via @Rhodescontemporaryart on Wednesday 2nd October at 4pm GMT Haring Dog - Red Edition of 66 £345 Haring Dog - Blue Edition of 33 £395 Signed, numbered & embossed Paper size W61 x H54cm Somerset Satin 300gsm paper Giclee print with screen printed Varnishes #nicksmithart #nicksmith #rhodescontemporaryart #keithharingdog

1990’s Barbie... An unobtainable, idealistic representation of the female form... A perfect platform for commentary artwork. #wip #nicksmithart #rhodescontemporaryart

Just booked my flights to Miami Art Basel... White pants packed ✈️ #nicksmith #nicksmithart #davidhockney #rhodescontemporaryart

Haring Dog - Collage on paper - Edition of 3 - Available via @rhodescontemporaryart #keithharing #nicksmith #nicksmithart #rhodescontemporaryart

Hands down my favourite piece to emerge from the studio in 2016... Tipping the Velvet, collage on paper with words taken from Sarah Walters epic 1998 novel. 1150 colour chip collage measuring 105x85cm... #nicksmithart #rhodescontemporaryart

The last remaining artwork from my Paramour series... available via @rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmith #nicksmithart #collageonpaper #rhodescontemporary

Ourselves Unseen hanging pretty courtesy of @princessandthepriory #nicksmithart #neverknowwhereyourartwilleandup #nicksmith

Van Gogh - Sunflowers Stolen: 14 April 1991 Recovered: Yes 754 colour chip collage Paper size: 70cm x 92cm Now on show @rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmith #vangoghsunflowers #rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmithart

The largest collage I’ve ever made consisting of 3,392 colour chips. Rembrandt’s - Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Now on show @rhodescontemporaryart #rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmith #nicksmithart #

Vermeer’s ‘The Concert’ is widely considered the most valuable painting ever stolen. It remains unrecovered 29 years after the theft. The piece depicts a music lesson with two paintings hung on the back wall. I screen printed the Vermeer displaying empty frames as a nod to The Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston’s choice to display an empty frame where it once sat. 17 colour screen print on 400gsm Somerset paper 40cm x 46cm Limited edition of 50 Signed & embossed £450 plus shipping... Purchase link in my bio 🚨 Now available via Rhodes Contemporary gallery in conjunction with my current exhibition ‘PINCHED’ which runs till June 1st @rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmithart #nicksmith #rhodescontemporaryart #vermeer #theconcert #isabellagardnermuseum

Story of how Goya’s Duke of Wellington was stolen On the 21st August 1961, curiously 50 years to the day after the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. A retired truck driver named Kempton Bunton snuck in through a window in the Gents WC of the National Gallery, London, which he had deliberately unlatched the previous day. He removed the painting from the gallery wall and then sent a series of notes written in capitals, to various newspapers. Purchased for £140,000; Bunton’s first note outlined his intent: "The act is an attempt to pick the pockets of those who love art more than charity . . . the picture is not, and will not be for sale – it is for ransom – £140,000 – to be given to charity." He later claimed that: "My sole object in all this was to set up a charity to buy television licences for old and poor people who seem to be neglected in an affluent society." Four more notes were sent and received no response from the National Gallery. His fifth and final note stated: ”Goya's Wellington is safe. I have looked upon this affair as an adventurous prank – must the authoritys [sic] refuse to see it this way. I know now that I am in the wrong, but I have gone too far to retreat." Almost four years later, Bunton weary of his charitable endeavour deposited in the left-luggage office of New Street station in Birmingham. He handed himself in shortly after and was acquitted of all but 1 of 5 criminal charges… He didn’t return the Wellingtons frame serving 3 months for his crime. Now on display @rhodescontemporaryart 754 colour chip collage on Fabriano 5 paper measuring 37 x 50cm #nicksmithart #rhodescontemporaryart #goya #collageonpaper #nicksmith

Story of the theft of Munch’s Madonna Two masked robbers yanked the art violently from the walls of the Munch Museum on Aug. 22, 2004, as about 80 visitors cowered nearby or milled about, oblivious, in side galleries. The robbers — one of whom threatened museum employees with a .357-Magnum handgun carried the heavily framed paintings to a black Audi station wagon, driven by an accomplice, and then disappeared. It took Oslo police two years and nine days to recover the artwork. They had also offered a reward of about $325,000 for assistance leading to the paintings’ recovery, but it’s unclear how exactly the masterpiece was recovered. 474 colour chip collage on Somerset Satin print measuring 100cm x 100cm now on display @rhodescontemporaryart #rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmithart #munchmadonna

I find it fascinating the way a frame can affect an artwork... So I framed this black and white Kate Moss in a mirror frame. Sold via @rhodescontemporaryart #rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmithart #nicksmith #katemoss

Story of the theft of Rembrandt self portrait (microchip). On December 22, 2000 a man with a machine gun and two accomplices already inside, brazenly walked into the Swedish National Museum, subdued the guards and took three paintings off the walls. Rembrandt’s Self Portrait was among them. Across town, two cars exploded outside two nearby hotels, diverting emergency responses. Once the alarm was sounded emergency vehicles found their tyres slashed by scattered nails outside the crime scene, providing ample time for the thieves to stash the artwork under their arms and spirit them away in a speedboat. Within a month all believed involved were caught and ten arrests were made. The paintings remained at large. In 2001 the first was recovered. Rembrandt’s self-portrait was discovered in 2005 in a hotel in Copenhagen. It was reportedly found during an attempted sale when the police intervened. The third was reported to have resurfaced prior to the Rembrandt. This is the smallest piece in the show and also one of my favourites, scaled to match the original Rembrandt consisting of 696 colour chips collaged onto Fabriano paper. Now on display @rhodescontemporaryart #rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmithart #nicksmith #rembrandt #collageonpaper

50% Rembrandt 44% Ruff Ryder 6% wife holding art in front of washing line #nicksmithart #rhodescontemporaryart #rembrandt

Story of the theft of Portrait of a Woman by Klimt In 1996, while flipping through The Complete works of Gustav Klimt, a sharp-eyed 18yr old (Claudia Maga ) noticed a strong resemblance between The Lady & another Klimt, Portrait of a Young Lady, that had not been seen since 1912. She photocopied & enlarged two photographs from the book, drew the profile of the Young Lady on tracing paper & placed it on top of The Lady. "That was it," she says. "The Lady was concealing another portrait…the only double portrait Klimt ever painted." Maga got the gallery's former director, Ferdinando Arisi, interested in her theory. He removed the portrait from its frame and headed to the hospital. A series of X-rays revealed the earlier work beneath the surface. The story behind the piece was the next surprise. Klimt fell in love with a girl from Vienna. When his muse suddenly died, he painted over her. An exhibition was arranged to show off the painting. Coincidentally, the gallery went under renovation. Paintings were packed into storage. Workers came & went. The Klimt went missing. Gallery staff assumed it was removed in preparation for the exhibition. The case went cold. In 1997, a journalist arranged a meeting between the investigator, Col Luca Pietranera, & an art thief he befriended in one of Piacenza's many bars. The thief told the colonel that the original investigators asked him for advice, as they searched for the thief. He confessed that he stole it & left the gilded frame on the roof as a coup de theatre. But what he had stolen that day was a copy. What had happened to the real painting? After the discovery of the double Klimt, he had walked into the gallery and replaced the original with a copy. "Nobody blinked. It was an easy & carefully planned inside job." Why was it necessary to steal the copy? The exhibition would doubtless have brought Klimt experts from far & wide. One would surely have spotted it was a fake - this may have been disastrous for the gallery insider who had assisted with the theft. Now on display @rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmithart #rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmith

There’s not much more of a grim story than a stolen child: this painting of Madonna & the Yarnwinder by DaVinci was recently subject to a £4.25m extortion plot... now recovered. Robbed from Drumlanig Castle on Aug 27, 2003 by a pair of axe wielding men posing as tourists, who escaped in a white VW Golf. Edition of 3 measuring 56 x 79cm now on display @rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmithart #rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmith

🚨Interesting story... Not many people are aware that the Mona Lisa was stolen over a century ago from the walls of the Louvre, in a blunderous theft involving a broken door knob that most certainly made it the famous Masterpiece it is today. After taking the artwork from the wall, an Italian handyman named Vincenzo Perugia hid in a closet in the Louvre overnight waiting for the museum to reopen in the morning to make his getaway. When the door handle of the closet broke off in his hand he was left trapped inside. It was only when he was heard knocking on the door from the inside, that a plumber employed by the Louvre opened the door from the outside, aiding in his escape. Perugia then handed the plumber the broken door knob and made his way out of the museum with the painting hidden under his smock. It took over two years for the Mona Lisa to be recovered. Perugia was apprehended attempting to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, Italy, which he believed to be it’s rightful home. Perugia was sentenced to one year in prison and upon his release was hailed a national hero by the Italian public, for attempting to repatriate the Italian masterpiece to its country of origin. Louvre Wall with Door Knob (Mona Lisa) Nick Smith 2019 Edition of 7 + 1 a/p Paper size 27.5cm x 35cm Vintage brass door knob framed on Fabriano 5 paper Pinched: August 21, 1911 Recovered: Yes Now on display @rhodescontemporaryart until 1st June #nicksmithart #rhodescontemporaryart #nicksmith