Frans Smit is a South African artist who has participated in over 40 exhibitions, locally and internationally. Smit started out by studying photography, and soon discovered an interest in painting. He studied at various renowned institutions, including the Chelsea College of Art and Design, the City Lit College, and St Martin’s College of Art and Design. Smit’s focus is mainly on portraiture and still life, and his pieces are all oil-based artworks, exhibiting a natural and organic balance between the palette and textures used. His work mixes the abstract with the real, using a hybrid of current and past art movements, to create a new visual language. His intent is to disrupt the traditional portrait, constructing a sense of distress and absurdity. Smit currently works at his Studio in Woodstock, Cape Town as a full time artist.