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. He has worn many hats, and those who have met him will know this to be
true. He is the class clown, the commercial flower farmer, the writer of spam-emails, the
dedicated support worker, the ice-cream man, the friend, the son, the brother, and the kind of
artist who needs Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Moirisette to be within arm's reach at all times.
Angst can fuel the world, but it's a fuel best refined by those with a sense of humor and the
wherewithal to wield it kindly; for the purpose of bold and beautiful works of art.

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. “Staircase Wit” is his debut
solo-show, and is the unveiling of his largest and boldest body of work to date.