Lydia smith studio

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Lydia's innovative approach and unique artistic vision have earned her recognition in prominent publications such as The Telegraph, The Guardian, Mayfair Times, and the high-end fashion magazine L'Officiel.

11/04/2026

🌑 THE LANGUAGE OF SCULPTURE IN 0-G �
An ongoing reflection on the relationship between physical and digital sculpture.�
This text considers how form, traditionally understood through weight, balance, and gravity, begins to shift when translated into digital space. What emerges is not simply a distortion, but the suggestion of a different language - one that resists the inherited logic of sculpture and instead operates through instability, fragmentation, and expanded perception.�
At its core, the writing reflects on a moment of tension within my practice: the pull between learned sculptural systems and an evolving, unfamiliar digital field.

✍️ Full text available in the WRITING section of my website.

🔗 Link in bio

26/03/2026

Last night we celebrated Sphere States, a new exhibition by Lydia Smith, on view from February to April 2026 at Chiltern Street Deli.�
Set within the everyday rhythm of the deli, the exhibition situates Smith’s enquiry into the public sphere within the exchanges of daily life. Chiltern Street Deli operates as a space of warmth and familiarity, shaped by shared tables, conversation, and the rituals of coffee and food.�
Drawing on Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere, Sphere States considers how shared spaces are produced through communication, and how they fracture under the pressures of perspective, belief, and power. The sphere emerges as a form that holds both balance and instability, reflecting the tension between unity and division.�
Within this setting, the work unfolds through encounter. Removed from the conventions of the gallery, it enters a space structured by interaction, where conversations pass between strangers as easily as they do between those who return each day.�
Reflecting on her time working in the space, Smith notes:�
“I’ve found that being here, installing, working, or having meetings, I’ve constantly entered into conversations with strangers. For a brief moment, you step into each other’s world, share something, and then move on. Those small exchanges have become a quiet but important part of my work and ongoing research into human connection.”�
Sphere States continues to unfold through the shifting encounters that move through the space, where connection and difference remain in constant negotiation.�
📍 Chiltern Street Deli, 27 Chiltern St, London, W1U 7PJ�🗓 Exhibition on view February – April 2026

26/03/2026

My solo show Sphere states , on view at

Exhibiting 22 works on paper, and the first time I have publicly displayed these works!

Open now - End of April

P.s Plus there coffee and bagels are really good ☕️

15/03/2026

Nature & Nurture : Part II
Work in progress

I carved the form from recycled polystyrene left over from my residency at the Royal Masonic School for Girls, where I created four monumental sculptures for the grounds. ��Carving directly into the block the form emerged quickly and intuitively before the surface was gradually built up with layers of plaster.�
During this process I found myself thinking about artists such as Giacometti, who continually reworked plaster surfaces before casting them in bronze, and Henry Moore, who experimented with carving large-scale forms in polystyrene as a way of exploring scale and volume.�
Normally I create my sculptures through clay modelling, but working with polystyrene and plaster introduced a different conversation with material. The form develops through a dialogue between intention and resistance , a process that continues until the material itself stops asking me questions.�
🔗 The research behind the work can be read in the WRITTING section on my website.�
References�Fondation Giacometti (2023) Alberto Giacometti: Materials and Techniques.�
Henry Moore Foundation (2022) Henry Moore: Working Methods and Materials.

09/03/2026

To every woman & girl.

Put your blinkers on.�Not because the world is small, but because your vision is too important to be distracted by the noise.

There will always be opinions, projections, doubts, pay no attention.

Watch for the wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Watch for the wolves in wolves clothing.

Don’t let them slow your stride.

See them, learn from them, step around them.

Get comfortable with conflict.
Be prepared to be disliked.

People are going to say bad things about you, it doesn’t mean there bad people.

It’s not a perfect path but a steady, stubborn wade through deep mud.

Be quietly (or loudly) confident.�Be Internally defiant.�
Carry a fire that doesn’t need permission to burn.

Be soft & strong in the way you exist.�Take up space.
�Let your ideas stretch their limits.�Let your presence be undeniable.

Do hard things, fail and stand back up.

Think of the girl you once were
And think of the older woman you will one day be, looking back across the years, asking Did I give it everything I had?

So give it everything.
�The courage.�The voice.�The stubborn belief in your own becoming.

And while you climb, reach back.�Lift another woman.�Open a door.�Say the encouraging word.
Because the most powerful thing a woman can do is shine and refuse to shine alone.

08/03/2026

Nature & Nurture : Part I
Work in progress

This sculpture began with a three-dimensional scan of my father’s head. What started as a technical investigation into digital form gradually evolved into something far more personal.

My father recently discovered and connected with members of his biological family. I began to witness moments where behaviours echoed among relatives who had lived entirely separate lives. At the same time, the differences between them revealed how powerfully an environment can shape who we become.

These encounters led me to reflect on the long-standing debate between nature and nurture, the question of whether identity is shaped primarily by biology or by the environments we inhabit.

The phrase itself was popularised in the nineteenth century by Francis Galton. While Galton’s work helped establish early studies of heredity, his legacy is complex. He was also the founder of eugenics, a movement that promoted selective breeding of humans, and for this reason, many scholars today approach his ideas critically rather than celebratorily.

Contemporary research increasingly suggests that genetics and experience are not opposing forces, but systems that continually shape one another.

🔗 The research behind the work can be read in the WRITTING section on my website.

References
Galton, F. (1869) Hereditary Genius.
Meaney, M.J. (2010) Child Development.
Moore, D.S. (2015) The Developing Genome.

02/03/2026

Sphere states

February- April

PV 25th March RSVP essential - 🔗 in bio

⚪️⚫️⚪️⚫️

14/02/2026

Is the way we interact in the world a manifestation of the information we consume and how we consume it?��Does reading a book give a different output to listening to a podcast?�
Within my practice, I consume most of my research material through podcasts, conversations, and going down rabbit holes on the internet. ��I wonder if my artistic output would change based on how I am fed data.�
In the last week, I have experienced more “stranger” interaction than normal, this was based on my location and the choice to work in cafes and pubs, by going that extra mile and attending two events that were out of the way and I preconceived a negative effect. ��However, I received so much inspiration and connection from these deviations in my routine.�
What was thought to be a negative (travel time, lack of sleep, and skipped meals) actually turned into a net positive, where I experienced non transactional human connection. ��I did not come away with a new contacts or opportunities.��I came away with memories of connecting with friends, clapping for a young child performing on the violin, laughing with colleagues about failures, and being able to be my unfiltered, energetic, weird, creative self.�
People can be scary, and it feels like we are more on guard with each other than ever, with miscommunication based on mood and interpretation. ��Something I do as part of my practice and life ethos is meet people where they are within their energy and accept them fully . By doing this, it is people who actually become my research and biggest inspiration.�
Underneath the books, podcasts, and rabbit holes, it is us , people, humans, who are the catalyst.��We must remember this. We are the origin, and no machine can mimic that.

23/01/2026

What if contradiction is a structure.

Not as a flaw, but as a condition.

A paradox is something that can’t sit neatly in one truth, yet still holds meaning.

 And I think identity works the same way. We are made of opposing forces: softness and defence, certainty and hesitation, care and distance. These energies don’t cancel each other out. They coexist. They shape how we move through the world.

Maybe that’s why being human never feels complete. We’re constantly editing ourselves, negotiating what to reveal, what to protect, what to become. And what we call “inconsistency” might actually be adaptation. A response to experience. A change in context.

If a past version of me could look at who I am now, they might accuse me of it hypocrisy, or changing to much, or letting go of past dreams and goals. But from the inside, it feels like growth. Not a clean progression, but a shifting alignment.

We think we know who we are. Other people think they know us too. But identity is not a fixed object. It’s relational. It changes with one revelation, one rupture, one discovery that rearranges everything.

Internal Universe Bronze Edition 1/10 Currently on display at with Stand E19 , Second floor in the Encounters gallery....
20/01/2026

Internal Universe
Bronze
Edition 1/10

Currently on display at with

Stand E19 , Second floor in the Encounters gallery.

20 -25 January 2026

Internal Universe explores Smith’s interest in the invisible energies within the human body, drawing on Mula Bandha yogic practices that link breath, movement, and inner awareness. Through this research, she was led to the pineal gland, long associated with intuition and perception.

References to the pinecone and the Egyptian Eye of Horus emerge within the sculpture not as fixed symbols, but as points of convergence between mythology and anatomy. These forms reflect an attempt to understand unseen but deeply felt forces, translating inner experience into visual language.

Through sculpture, Smith translates these layered references into a tactile language. Internal Universe becomes a meditation on interconnectedness, where body, belief, and form remain in constant dialogue.

Her use of gold and brown patina is influenced by historical sculpture, particularly ancient Egyptian gold works, where gold carried symbolic meaning as well as material presence. It was associated with the divine and the eternal, valued for its ability to reflect light and resist decay. This understanding of surface is also shaped by the sculptural legacy of Constantin Brâncuși, and specifically his sculpture Mlle Pogany (version I, 1913).

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Marylebone
W1U 4NA

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