No Vancouver, 2021

Gregg Smith  

Gregg Smith's is an artist and film maker of South African origin, based in France. Following studies at the Michaelis School of Art (University of Cape Town), The Rijksakademie (Amsterdam) and Le Fresnoy (Tourcoing), his work is equally visible in contemporary art and cinema circuits. These include screenings and exhibitions at The Tate Modern (London), Videobrasil (Sao Paulo), Le Centre Pompidou (Paris), Rotterdam International Film Festival, Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona), Krinzinger Gallery (Vienna), Le Plateau FRAC Ile-de-France (Paris), and the Dakar Biennale (Senegal). He has taught extensively in institutions, such as the Michaelis School of Art (Cape Town), ECAV (Switzerland), the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'architecture de Versailles and the l'Institut Français de la Mode and ESA Tourcoing.

Smith's work unfolds in layers, moving continuously between the inner psychic realm and immediate physical space. His mobiles, paintings and texts make use of techniques of cut-up and juxtaposition. These are subsequently integrated into performances incorporating voice and dance. Humour and the unexpected are elements in these attempts to challenge a conditioned experience of urban space. In its most ambitious form, his non-profit, Very Real Time uses relational  techniques in combination with dance, video and photography as means to support youth development; build community resources and shift the obstacles of apartheid era town planning in the town of Atlantis. Very Real Time was founded in 2003.