Anj Smith

29 October 2025 – 24 January 2026

West Hollywood

For her first Los Angeles solo exhibition in two decades, British artist Anj Smith will debut new works that explore the connections between art, mysticism, female agency and philosophy. Rich in detail, color and texture, Smith’s new paintings collapse strict definitions of portraiture, landscape and still life while allowing elements of each to coexist. Amid ecological devastation, her wildly feral settings, ambiguous nudes, and exotic flora and fauna urge the possibility of a contemporary transcendence. Smith draws upon sources as disparate as the myth of Narcissus, the writings of philosopher Simone Weil and short stories by medieval poet Marie de France, disrupting expectation within a present-day cosmos all her own.

_Artwork:_{Anj Smith, Her Side of the Story (detail), 2025 © Anj Smith. Photo: Alex Delfanne}

About the Artist

Anj Smith

Anj Smith’s work negotiates the space between the genres of portraiture, landscape, and still-life. In her interrogation and celebration of the medium of painting, alluring flora and fauna—from vines, flowers, and ivy to ambiguous creatures and human figures—populate ecologically devastated landscapes. Refusing fast consumption, her work explores issues of gender, ecology, anxiety, and eroticism.

Born in 1978 in Kent, UK, Anj Smith studied at Slade School of Fine Art and at Goldsmiths College in London. Smith has exhibited at institutions around the world, including Museo Stefano Bardini, Florence, Italy; The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK; Mostyn, Llandudno, UK; Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville TN, and La Maison Rouge, Paris, France. Smith’s work is also displayed in the collections of many leading international museums including The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; MOCA The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA; The Roberts Institute of Art, London, and the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland.

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