Everyone Needs Hugs, limited edition print, signed and numbered by the artist, 50 × 70 cm.
I am very pleased to announce the exhibition Fox Is Key from Wednesday 28th October until 14th November 2026 in Lendroit Editions in Rennes, France. The exhibition consists of paintings, drawings and “goodies”, all from the world of the Fox.
If you cannot go to Rennes you can see the “goodies” on the excellent online shop of Lendroit Editions. Link at the bottom of the page.
Here is a translation of the text by Raphaële Jeune that presents the exhibition :
Fox is Key, an exhibition of previously unseen works and “goodies” by Macdara Smith.
Each of us can imagine having a doppelganger who would give us their eyes so we might see the world more clearly. Macdara Smith, for his part, has invented the Fox, a character who is half-human, half-animal: a guide, a lookout, a being on the threshold. For him, the fox is the companion creature he needs to step outside reality whilst remaining fully immersed in it, to illuminate the pathos of life whilst imbuing it with the grace of an innocent gaze, the subversiveness of an quirky gesture, or the tragic vision of a solitary figure groping in the dark. Macdara Smith navigates existence with all his senses wide open, and his hybrid double – like others before him (The Famous Dead Artist) – affords him the freedom to recount, obliquely yet with relentless lucidity, what he sees: the many facets of an ‘ordinary’ human experience, caught between absurdity and beauty.
His almost daily practice of drawing has led him to fill hundreds of sketchbooks, which he regards as diaries, in which he freely records his thoughts, desires, lived experiences and the feelings he has experienced. One can imagine these pages covered with pensive, wry, evocative little scenes, sometimes silent, sometimes eloquent. Whilst they are not intended to be shown, the artist sometimes draws inspiration from them to create standalone drawings or paintings, such as those created especially for the exhibition at Lendroit. Such is the case with the ‘portrait’ of the mug that accompanies his daily routine and from which he draws his vital energy as an artist-writer whilst drinking his black tea: it shows the cover of the book Dubliners by his compatriot and mentor James Joyce, in its Penguin edition with its psychotonically orange hue.
He is also inspired by fairy tales, drawing on the anthropomorphisation of animals and the power of stories as existential guides and sources for learning shared values. We are all caught up in a multitude of stories, and seeing them told – with humour and tenderness, as in Smith’s drawings – enriches our understanding of the present and gives voice to both our anxieties and our hopes. These are vital sources of support, through which our lives are woven with meaning and pulsate with the sense of sharing something in common: our humanity. How better to grasp this than in the arms of a fox offering us a ‘hug’, as shown in the print? In this embrace, a secret that has been kept all too well is passed on: the realisation that the world reveals itself to anyone willing to pay attention and to see it through the free and loving eyes of the imagination. Fox is Key = Love is Key = You are the Key.
Raphaële Jeune – October 2026
The exhibition runs from Wednesday 28th October until 14th November 2026.
You can order the print and the goodies in the online shop from Lendroit Editions.
