In Public Sculpture, acclaimed Queensland artist Ian Smith presents a new series of sculptural works that extend his long-standing interest in structure, materiality, and the built environment.
Born in Cairns and based in Brisbane, Smith has cultivated a five-decade career across painting, drawing, and three-dimensional practice. His work has been exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, and is represented in major public and private collections, including QAGOMA.
Smith began his studies in architecture before shifting to art, a formative influence that continues to shape his exploration of form, tension, and spatial balance. In these new sculptural pieces, he revisits the physical processes that first drew him to visual art—construction, weight, surface, and the suspension of shapes in space.
Public Sculpture offers audiences an opportunity to encounter Smith’s practice in a fresh light, revealing the artist’s enduring fascination with how objects occupy, define, and disrupt the spaces around them.
