Ones to Watch: OriginalSmith

Outstanding artists to have on your radar right now. Charlotte Middleton writes.

“My processes weave storytelling and technology into artworks that engage and challenge,” says OriginalSmith. Using acrylic paints and aerosols on aluminium panels, the artist inscribes layers of captivating detail and dimension through fine laser etching. In his series The Sea Has Stories, maritime subjects such as ships are translated into faceted arrangements that together form the mesmerising impression of a kaleidoscope.

Among OriginalSmith’s recent accomplishments are winning the People’s Choice award in the Seafarers Art Prize in 2021 and the overall prize in 2022. He was also shortlisted for the National Portrait Gallery’s Darling Portrait Prize in 2022 and was a finalist in this year’s Omnia Art Prize.

Already held in several corporate and private collections in Australia and overseas, Smith’s work was exhibited at the Affordable Art Fair Melbourne by Gallery 550 in 2023.

Above: OriginalSmith, Emerald Harbour II, 2022. Acrylic, aerosol and laser-etch on aluminium panel, 80 x 80cm. Courtesy: the artist.

More ones to watch from Recent issues

Ones to Watch: Holly Field 

Art Edit has selected Holly Field as an outstanding artist to have on your radar.Following a twenty-year nursing career, emerging artist Holly Field began her creative journey in her mid-thirties. A self-taught ceramic artist, she initially sought to incorporate painting to diversify her ceramic designs. However, she soon uncovered a passion for capturing the essence […]

Ones to Watch: Kate Belvedere

Art Edit has selected Kate Belvedere as an outstanding artist to have on your radar. “My work is an attempt to grapple at what it is to be human in an ever-changing cosmos,” says early-career artist Kate Belvedere. Residing in North-East Victoria, Belvedere graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the […]

Ones to Watch: Samantha Haničar 

Art Edit has selected Samantha Haničar as an outstanding artist to have on your radar. Trained in Fine Arts & Design at Newcastle Art School, Australian-Croatian artist Samantha Haničar’s practice encompasses drawing and sculpture. Brutalist architecture, Spomeniks (WWII memorials built in the former Yugoslavia), and the concrete socialist housing found in central and Eastern Europe […]

Ones to Watch: Simone Darcy

Art Edit has selected Simone Darcy as an outstanding artist to have on your radar. Born in Bedgerabong on Wiradjuri land in rural NSW, Simone Darcy is an early-career artist based in lutruwita/Tasmania. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours, her distinct practice employs cameraless image-making and darkroom processes in inventive ways. Using performance […]

Ones to Watch: Zeina Kara Ali

Art Edit has selected Zeina Kara Ali as an outstanding artist to have on your radar. “I have a deep affinity with beauty,” confesses Sydney-based artist Zeina Kara Ali, who was born and raised in Lebanon. First trained in Biology, her supreme powers of observation translate to sensitively rendered landscape and still-life works brimming with […]

Ones to Watch: Jorge Mariño Brito

Art Edit has selected Jorge Mariño Brito as an outstanding artist to have on your radar. Cuban-born artist Jorge Mariño Brito reflects on his immigrant journey and channels these experiences into art. Now based in Brisbane, his work encompasses contemporary papermaking, painting, and printmaking, probing issues of gender, sexuality, and otherness. Through a process of […]