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SMITH is proud to present Amateur Hour, Dale Lawrence’s solo presentation at the 2018 FNB Joburg Art Fair.
Amateur Hour is made up of prints, paintings and installation artworks that allude to the potential of the amateur as a creative persona while playing on the theatrical nature of an impromptu show within a show.
The collection follows numerous group show appearances and two solo exhibitions in successive years at SMITH, 2016’s look busy and 2017’s Another Helping and sees Lawrence return to the FNB Joburg Art Fair for a second successive year after his amorphous collective Hoick’s special projects booth won praise for their conceptual show Shall We Move On? in 2017.
In this presentation, Lawrence questions the sovereignty of professionalism and the commercial product, arguing that the earnest pursuit of beauty, clarity and enlightenment are more valuable than the result. To this end, he suggests, an artist must be more like an amateur than a professional.
Lawrence says: “The task of a professional is to deliver with efficiency and consistency whereas the task of an amateur to pursue with wonder an abandon. This is arguably a nobler and more worthy attitude and is potentially more likely to yield worthier outcomes.”
“Professionalism is bound to be conservative because it requires its actors to be qualified and to conform to certain parameters and expectations. An amateur abides by none of these rules and is always in the process of learning. Amateurs are free of expectations and are focused entirely on the making of work as opposed to its end result. The professional has arrived the amateur is still searching.”
Amateur Hour was selected as one of seven solo presentations at the fair – a group that includes Zander Blom for Stevenson, Roger Ballen and Hans Lemnen for ARTCO and Galerie GALEA’s Mamady Seydi.
The 2018 Selection Committee is comprised of Joost Bosland (Stevenson), Jonathan Garnham (blank projects), Monna Mokoena, (Gallery MOMO), Baylon Sandri (SMAC Gallery) and Rakeb Sile (Addis Fine Art) and is chaired in a non-voting capacity by FNB JoburgArtFair Curator Amy Ellenbogen.
Lawrence was a top 10 finalist in the 2017 L’Atelier Art Competition and participated in SMITH’s exhibition at both the 2016 and 2017 AKAA Art Fair in Paris.
For further enquiries or to request an exclusive interview with the artist, please contact Jana Terblanche at jana@smithstudio.co.za.