John Noel Smith
Irish Abstract Artist. Biography, Paintings.

John Noel Smith (b.1952)

The contemporary Irish abstract painter John Noel Smith was born in Dublin in 1952. He studied drawing and fine art painting at the Dun Laoghaire School of Art before leaving Ireland to undertake post graduate studies in Berlin in 1980. From 1980 to 2002 he developed his technique and career in Berlin. Since returning to Ireland in 2002, John Smith has been living and working in Gorey, County Wexford. A mid-career retrospective of Smith's work - "John Noel Smith - A Survey Exhibition 1992-2002" - was shown in 2002 in the Royal Hibernian Academy Gallagher Gallery (RHA) as part of The Nissan Art Project.

As a painter, John Smith has over the last two decades addressed the relationship between figurative and abstract art, often using very large canvases.

His paintings have been shown widely in solo exhibitions in Ireland and abroad at such venues as: Galleri Clemens Aarhus, Denmark (1989), Royal Hospital, Dublin (1990), Galleri Asback, Copenhagen, Denmark (1991), Galleri lars Bohman, Stockholm, Sweden (1991), Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin, Germany (1998), Galleri Leger Malmö, Sweden (1999), Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2002) and Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (2005).

He has also been represented at many group exhibitions including The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Berlinishe Galerie State Museum for Modern Art, Photography and Architecture, Berlin, Germany.

John Smith's pictures are included in most of the major collections in Ireland, including: the Arts Council, Bank of Ireland and the OPW. His work can be seen in IMMA and the German State Museum for Modern Art – Berlinishe Galerie. He is a member of Aosdana.

For more details of Irish painters/sculptors involved in abstraction, see: Abstract Artists Ireland.

Auction Record For John Noel Smith

The highest price paid at auction for a painting by John Noel Smith was recorded in 2006, when his work, entitled Ogham V, was sold at Sotheby's, in London, for £36,000.

More Information About Visual Arts in Ireland

• For details of other abstract painters and sculptors, see: Irish Artists: Paintings and Biographies.
• For more about concrete artists like John Noel Smith, see: Irish Art Guide.
• For more about abstraction in art, see: Homepage.