Wexford based artist John Noel Smith spent over twenty years working in Berlin. His painterly abstractions found their voice there amid the tight milieu of a then divided city. Noel Smith has been invited to create two works for the Atrium space at the RHA. He has undertaken two very large canvases and added to this ambition of scale, a poignant lament to his time in Berlin. Entitled Bilderstreit the German word refers to “controversy over image”. Smith’s honed his skill and style in the close-knit community of painters where critique and argument surrounded their work.

Born in Dublin in 1952, John Noel Smith attended Dún Laoghaire School of Art followed by postgraduate studies in Berlin. He lived in Berlin for twenty-two years where he was an important member of its vibrant art community, returning to Ireland in 2002.

He has exhibited internationally since 1980. His work forms part of important public collections, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and Berlinische Galerie, the state museum of modern art in Berlin. He is represented by Hillsboro Fine Art Dublin, Fenderesky Gallery Belfast and Waterhouse & Dodd, London.