Margaux Smith's paintings explore layers, excavating strata of both personal and collective cultural memory. Smith begins her paintings with a collage ground made up of magazines and books. These found images provide the background for densely textured oil paintings which Smith produces through a durational practice in which many layers of paint are applied, sanded or scraped away, and reapplied. This process of excavation leads to a gradual revelation of faces, bodies and interior spaces. The resulting paintings explore family and intimate relationships, composite portraits with multiple conflicting selves shifting on the surface. Through a process of gradual emergence, she locates herself in images that explore interdependence within social groups. This layering process draws attention to the way in which painting is, like the self, a mutable record of a temporal process rather than a fixed image of a point in time.

Margaux Smith - Dream One Ole Lukoje 

oil on board, 2016, 21” x 24”

Solo / Two Person Exhibitions

2017 Amaurosis, Wil Kucey Gallery, Toronto, ON
2016 What the Moon Saw LE Gallery, Toronto ON
2016 Prescient Arc Luminato Festival, Collaboration with Nicole Collins, Hearn, Toronto ON
2010 - Amsterdam Lewis and Lovak, Amsterdam
2010 - Olive Sister's show 52 McCaul, Toronto ON

Selected Group Shows
2016 Flow Channel Carrier Collective, West Lodge, Toronto ON
2015- Works with Paper LE Gallery, Toronto ON
2015- Experiencing Perspectives Mercedes Benz, Mississauga ON
2015 - OCADU 100th GRADEX Toronto ON
2015 - Eat the Menu Symington House, Toronto ON
2015 - Festival of the Body OCADU, Toronto, ON
2015- The Big Draw OCADU, Toronto ON
2013 - Iris Circus 2 Federal Street, Toronto, ON
2009 - Nuit Blanche Ironside Board of Directors Gallery, Toronto, ON
2009 - Ironside Collective Whippersnapper Gallery, Toronto ON

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Margaux Smith - Solitaire 

oil on board, 2016, 12” x 10”