Smart Barnett is a British multidisciplinary artist based in Manchester, UK.
Working across embroidery, drawing, textiles, printmaking & moving image, his practice explores queer desire, intimacy, shame, censorship and the uneasy relationship between digital culture and traditional craft. Drawing on imagery sourced from pornography, screenshots, social media & online exhibitionism, Barnett translates fleeting digital images into slow, labour-intensive artworks.
Through hand & machine embroidery, printmaking & drawing, he investigates what happens when images designed for instant consumption are transformed into physical objects that demand sustained attention. His work is interested in the tension between exposure & concealment, considering how queer bodies are viewed, censored, fetishised and remembered. Rather than using explicit imagery simply to provoke, Barnett employs craft processes historically associated with domesticity, decoration and care to question ideas of taste, value, intimacy and public display.
Alongside contemporary digital culture, his work is informed by personal experiences of trauma, coercion and queer identity, creating works that move between humour and discomfort, vulnerability and resilience. Through slow, repetitive making, Barnett asks how desire, memory & shame become embedded in both images and materials.
"I’m fascinated by the collision between fast digital culture & slow handmade processes. I often begin with images that are considered disposable or taboo, especially pornography, screenshots and moments of online intimacy, and translate them through embroidery or printmaking. I’m interested in how slowing these images down changes the way we look at them, and how craft can complicate ideas of shame, desire and censorship."
Smart Barnett has his first exhibition with us in April 2027