John Noel Smith b.1952

'...What I paint about is the issue of identity, and part of my identity is composed of being Irish...' (Smith in John Noel Smith, exh. cat., R.H.A, Dublin, September - October 2002, p.17)

Smith's ongoing exploration of his identity is perhaps most cogently exemplified by the emphasis in the title of the present work on Ogham, the early Irish alphabet system.  An investigation of the old language prompted the artist to look back through his country's history and mirrors Brian O'Doherty/Patrick Ireland's own treatment of the theme in the 1960s. The different letters of the alphabet were formed by combinations of lines incised along the edge of a memorial stone and have been transformed by Smith's bold impasto style. The first four works from the series, Oghams I - IV were exhibited at the artist's retrospective exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2002.

Born in Dublin, Smith studied at the Dun Laoghaire School of Art and undertook post-graduate study in Berlin. He has exhibited extensively at galleries such as The Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast; The Green on Red Gallery, Dublin; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Purdy Hicks Gallery, London; The Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast and the Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin.