Adrien Smart is a Canadian oil painter whose portraits are inspired by neoclassicism and a modern desire to cast figures in a refreshing representational aesthetic.

 

He delves into melodrama as a source of inspiration rather than something to be avoided like the plague, and he believes that every person deserves to be the subject of a painting.

 

Smart mines for that sweet-spot where a figure in oils can depict our deepest emotions with a sincerity that speaks volumes to the human condition, and if a little emotion comes to the surface from the viewer,
well, that’s what he’d like to call a “two-fer-one.”

He is a storyteller, and always has been. Whether it was drawing comics as a child,
crafting short fiction on his grandmother’s typewriter as a teenager, or making independent films
as a young adult, all roads seemingly led him to pursue a BFA in Creative Writing from the
University of Victoria.

Smart completed his first artist’s residency in Belgrade, Serbia in March 2022, and has
been featured in group shows at Metchosin Art Pod, Staying Creative Gallery, and the Sooke
Fine Arts Show. He competed in Victoria City Finals at Art Battle, and was a recent student of
Joe Bembridge’s mentorship program through Gallery Merrick.

 

There, he unveiled his debut solo show: “Staircase Wit," his largest and boldest body of work to date.