Known for his paintings of disembodied shirts and coats hanging ghostlike, voluptuous yet intense. Smith concentrates on the intimate, the private and the minutae that make up daily experience.

This holds true for this new work excepting that the subjects of these paintings are all dead and their last private moments have gone to the grave with them. Now the clothing is worn by the recently deceased who have no need for them. A gentleness and sensitivity in the paintings belie the brutality and distastefulness of the subject matter. Sometimes a sheet is thrown over a body, at others the victim lies where they were struck down. Are they victims of crime, of an atrocity, or a natural disaster? Or are their deaths the tragic result of their own misdemeanors? No clues are given and nothing is explained.

It is in the familiarity of these images seen too often in films, newspapers and on TV of ordinary people going about their daily lives and suddenly struck down that make these painting both compelling and distressing,

Colin Smith has shown extensively in The UK, Europe and The USA. Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include solo shows at Rockwell London in 2004 and Buenos Aires, El Paso and Stockholm in 2007. His paintings are in many private and public collections including The Tate Gallery and The Arts Council. He is a regular contributer to Turps Banana.