Artist - Annie Smits Sandano

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Annie has lived in New Zealand, Italy and until recently the United Kingdom. Annie completed her Fine Arts education at Elam School of Fine Arts with Honours and the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA. Annie has since exhibited in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the USA.

Annie's first exhibited works were wood block prints and recently she has extended her visual investigation and developed her practice into the area of painting and most recently ceramics.

Annie is primarily driven by an interest in investigating the basic interaction between line and colour via materiality and/or process.

"My visual cues are broad: from painting to ceramics to printmaking, everything interests me. I seek to create images and objects which operate on a visceral level and incite an emotion which transports the viewer.
Colour, light, texture & shapes are all key concerns throughout my practice. A lot of the satisfaction in making comes from working with materials & my work is process-driven.

Within each of the disciplines in my practice I often strive to cultivate processes which at first instance are rooted in the traditional - primarily analogue and championing laboursome and, when relevant, antiquated methods. At the same time a lot of my work blurs the edges of where one medium begins and the other ends, questioning both and this way creating space for the visual dialogue to be questioned within a contemporary context both aesthetically and materially.

My limited edition prints are hand made using traditional analogue techniques and my ceramic works are all very tactile and slowly hand-built. My original paintings are often built from materials I have created or using techniques I have hybridised from printmaking.

I am interested in continually developing a diverse portfolio of works and approaches, working solo and collaboratively and exhibiting my work in an array of platforms.