Terry Smith

Terry Smith lives and works in Folkestone. He was recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award in 2008. He is known for cutting into walls, from museums to derelict buildings, sometimes with permission.

Smith left school at sixteen with no qualifications and graduated from Goldsmiths in 1978 with a First Class BA (Hons). “I have been working my way down ever since”.

In 1994 he broke into a series of derelict houses in Leytonstone and made my first wall cuts. The following year a solo show at The Adam Reynolds Gallery, followed by a project at the British Museum. He was not invited but made a secret intervention. He worked for a month before being discovered by which time he had completed the large Ionic Capital. The work was open to the public for one day. In 1996, this time invited, he held the keys to the Turbine Hall during its conversion into Tate Modern and was permitted to cut into its walls. Only staff and a handful of invitees saw the works in situ. Images were later shown at the South London Gallery in Inside Bankside.

Smith’s first major retrospective, Parallax, was held at the John Hansard Gallery (2011–12). Other works include The Foundling, commissioned for the Foundling Museum. He has exhibited extensively in the UK and South America. One of his audio works appears on Thurston Moore’s album Root, which included Blur and David Bowie.

Since 2008 he has been working with live performance, with singers and composers, and since 2012 with dancers. He continues to work across all kinds of media on a kind of whim. He has no interest in originality, style or signature work. Smith has continued his practice largely outside the commercial sector and his foray into educational institutions have largely been through residences. He has never held a formal teaching post.

There have been exhibitions, publications and awards since. He remains interested in absence, removal, and what’s left. Dust.