WorkArt & Culture

Vanessa Smith's intense paintings of empty rooms that look out onto photographed wastelands

Vanessa Smith's mysterious paintings of interiors, whether it be a deserted cafe or dimly-lit living room, are imbued with an eerie tension. Devoid of people, there are suggestions of life – a smoking cigarette, perhaps, or glowing light – all hint at a fractured narrative.

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Teal-painted living room with empty armchairs facing a yellow vintage television, with a monochrome wasteland visible through the window behind

The window view monochrome landscapes draw your eye and increase the sense of isolation, their bleak subjects – burning cars, industrial wasteland, deserted roads – are evocative of an aftermath as seen in science fiction movies or crime scenes.

Although there is undoubtedly a sense of the macabre in Smith's work, she has a congenial relationship with this aspect; she finds a beauty in the stillness and silence... even if her depicted world has just ended. Represented by TAG Fine Arts, Smith will be one of the artists featured in the Moniker art fair, which takes place in London's Brick Lane this October.

All images courtesy of Moniker and the artist

A green interior with monochromatic landscape visible through a window, featuring green furniture, a tree trunk, leafy wallpaper, and a perched owl on a side table
Bright blue interior with a gold chair, hanging pendant light, and a window framing a black and white photograph of an abandoned house surrounded by bare trees
A teal-walled bedroom with a wooden floor, animal skull on the wall, bed, desk and chair, with a window showing a monochrome landscape of bare trees
Vanessa Smith painting of a green-walled room with a burgundy chair, vintage TV and stove, with a monochrome landscape visible through the window
Interior of a sparse room with yellow tiled lower walls and mauve upper walls, containing a bed, stove and chair, with a window showing a dark nighttime landscape
Rust-red bedroom interior with unmade bed and green curtain, window showing a dark monochrome industrial street scene
A yellow room with an open doorway draped in black fabric, a bed with white pillows, a wooden chair holding a cow skull, an owl perched on a side table, and a framed monochrome landscape painting on the wall
Interior with yellow-draped table and cat, viewed through window onto desolate landscape with industrial structures and utility poles
Vanessa Smith painting of a sparse interior with a standing bear figure, sofa and desk, with a monochrome industrial landscape visible through the window
A rust-coloured bedroom with a floor lamp and unmade bed, with a window framing a monochrome industrial wasteland with power lines and snow
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