Richard Smith was born in Edinburgh, Scotland but moved with his family to South Africa at a young age. Studying graphic design at the Johannesburg School of Art in the 1960s, followed by his work in 1968 for the Sunday Times in Johannesburg, Smith produced politically important works for the underground movement. He held his first solo exhibition in London in 1971 at the Arts Theatre Club. He was Standard Bank’s cartoonist of the year in 1980 and 1984 and was resident at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris in 1990. For over 50 years he has produced works on canvas and on paper and has exhibited consistently with works included in important public and private collections.

Richard Smith’s paintings are often accidental and over many months a story and individuality will appear. He is an authentic voice where the act of painting is foremost and the form and content are secondary. Although his finished works are richly layered, he wants, in his own words, ‘the brush to spend as little time on the canvas as possible’. A fearsome self-critic, paintings can sometimes take months or even years to appear

‘They’re weird and monstrous and they’re oddly compelling. Sometimes they’re constructed in a multi-faceted layout. At other times, they present themselves to you in surreal poses… there’s humour there… it’s humour pummeled by bleakness revealing echoes of what it was that gave Smith the potency he enjoyed as a political cartoonist’ – Robyn Sassen

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023
'No Signal, No Message, No Secret', EBONY/CURATED Franschhoek, South Africa

2017
'Ghost in the Machine', EBONY/CURATED Cape Town, South Africa

2016
'Faceless', EBONY/CURATED Franschhoek, South Africa

2015
'New Paintings', EBONY/CURATED Cape Town, South Africa

2014
'Rapid Eye Movement', EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Lizamore and Associates, Johannesburg, South Africa

2012
Retrospective Exhibition, University of Cape Town, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
Artspace, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010
Artspace, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009
iArt Cape Town, South Africa

2008
Artspace, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007
Artspace, Johannesburg, South Africa
Potchefstroom University Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa 2006 Cultivaria, Paarl, South Africa

2005
‘Dialogues’ – Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa

2003
Jill Yakas Gallery, Athens, Greece

1993 – 1994
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1991
South African Association of Arts, Pretoria (Paris work), South Africa

1988
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1972
Solo Show of Cartoons – Arts Theatre Club, Leicester Square, United Kingdom

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2024
'Modern Masters VI' EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
EXPO Chicago, EBONY/CURATED, Chicago, South Africa

2023
'A Very Loop Street Summer II', EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
'An Endless Night', curated by Anelisa Mangcu, The Mount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa
'Room With a View', Curated by Karen Elkington, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, South Africa

2021
1-54 London, EBONY/CURATED, London, United Kingdom

2019
‘A Smaller Scale’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
‘From the Horses Mouth’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
London Art Fair, Ed Cross Fine Art, London, United Kingdom

2016
‘Projects’, EBONY/CURATED, Franschhoek, South Africa
SAADA Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
SAADA Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Carol Lee Fine Art, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011
Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

2010
Miele Art Gallery Johannesburg, South Africa
Grand Provence Franschhoek, South Africa

2009
Grand Provence, Franschhoek, South Africa
Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
Work chosen for the South African Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria

2008
'MUSE ’08', KKNK, Oudshoorn, South Africa
iArt Cape Town, South Africa
Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

2007
Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
Bell Roberts, Lourensford, Somerset West, South Africa
Cultivaria, Paarl, South Africa
KKNK, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Commission – 6 works for Rand Merchant Bank

2006
Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Portraits’ at AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2005
Rose Korber Art Salon, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

2002
Omma Centre of Contemporary Art, Chania, Crete
Living in Cephalonia, Greece

2001
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1995 -2000
Represented by Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa and Galleri Viktoria, Gottenburg, Sweden

1990-1991
Resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
Luxtor’s Fine Art, Oxfordshire, United kingdom
Black Boy Gallery, West Wycombe, United kingdom

1990
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1986
Everard Read Gallery with Paul Stopforth and Hillary Graham, Johannesburg, South Africa

1976
South African Association of Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa

1975
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

COLLECTIONS

Rand Merchant Bank, South Africa
Sasol, South Africa
Sanlam, South Africa
FNB, South Africa
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
University of the Free State, South Africa
University of Cape Town, South Africa

PUBLICATIONS

2017
‘Richard Smith’, Published by EBONY/CURATED

2012
‘Richard Smith’. Published to coincide with Irma Stern Museum Retrospective

2009
‘What’s so Funny?’ Under the skin of South African Cartooning by Andy Mason

1999
Nelson Mandela, A life in Cartoons

1988
Rhodes Journalism Review

1988
Dictionary of South African Painters and Sculptors – Everard Read

1982 – 1989
Chief Illustrator – Leadership Magazine, Johannesburg
Standard Bank Cartoonist of the Year Award, (’80 and ’89)
Represented on Cape Town Triennial (’85 and ‘88).

1987
Cartoons and Illustrations for the Harvard Business Review

1977 – 1984
Cartoonist for the Sunday Express, Johannesburg.
Illustrator for: Optima, Management, Financial Mail, Leadership and Energos

1968 – 1969
Cartoonist – Sunday Times, Johannesburg

1973 – 1976
Daily political cartoon strip – Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg
Published book of Cartoons ‘Smith and Abbott’s Greatest Hits’

1972
The Cartoon (A short history of Graphic Comedy and Satire) by John Geipel

1970 – 1972
London, UK Freelance Cartoonist for: Punch, BBC, Time Out and Ink, UK