View the world-renowned ‘Morphous’ sculpture at Lionel Smit Studio
An edition of Lionel Smit’s 2014 monumental bronze sculpture, Morphous, can now be viewed by the public as part of the permanent exhibition in our sculpture garden, landscaped with indigenous South African flora.
An edition of Lionel Smit’s 2014 monumental bronze sculpture, Morphous, can now be viewed by the public as part of the permanent exhibition in our sculpture garden, landscaped with indigenous South African flora.
The original Morphous has found a permanent home at Kennedy Plaza, in Providence, Rhodes Island, USA, where it was unveiled in November 2022 after touring across the United States. The tour included a tenure at Union Square in New York City. Morphous travelled to several cities being exhibited as a temporary installation across the United States, including The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA Miami, 2018), Grounds for Sculpture, New Jersey (2022) before finally finding a life-long home in Kennedy Square.
Download press release about the Morphous US Tour
The piece evokes a moment in time just after the passing of South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, an iconic world leader. The piece’s Janus-like double vision signifies a foretelling and is simultaneously an acknowledgment of what has been and a bold signifier of the anticipation of what is still to come.
The figures contained in the sculpture are charged with emotive and gestural energy, a hallmark of Smit's evocative style. Viewers familiar with Ancient Roman mythology and iconography will undoubtedly think of Janus, the double-headed deity of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings.
