Ian Rayer-Smith’s romantic abstract paintings that fuse the figurative and the surreal

The award-winning Manchester-based artist Ian Rayer-Smith is having a solo exhibition of new paintings alongside some of his sculptures at London’s Zari Gallery from 20 to 29 April 2017.

Strongly influenced by the work of the abstract expressionists and the romantic light of the old masters, Rayer-Smith’s large oil and acrylic paintings effortlessly fuse abstraction, the figurative and the surreal. Consisting entirely of brand new works produced within the last year, the exhibition explores the very act of painting itself and the process of mark making, which has been man’s most basic form of expression for millennia.

“I like my paintings to carry an emotional charge,” says Rayer-Smith. “Not only in its subject matter but also through the energy and visceral nature of the materials I use. Soft and amorphous, they accentuate the tactile feel of nature, avoiding any sense of repetition so as to constantly offer something new and surprising.”

Voted one of Manchester’s Top 10 Artists by Manchester Confidential and Winner of the 2014 Warrington Contemporary Prize, Ian Rayer-Smith has been hailed as one of the North’s artists to watch. This is his first solo exhibition in London.