Intelligence Did Not Save Anybody, Bang Bim and Only in America

Paul Anthony Smith

Intelligence Did Not Save Anybody, Bang Bim and Only in America

Medium: Paint

In each of these three paintings on view, we seem to be gazing through multiple layers of obstructions — a brick wall, chain-link fence, a beaded curtain — at isolated and fragmented glimpses of daily life in the street. These works by New York artist Paul Anthony Smith represent a return to a local base for the artist, who was born in Jamaica, raised in Miami and studied in Kansas City, where he received a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute. Although Smith was trained as a ceramist and is highly accomplished in painting, his work has recently garnered art world attention through an extended series of photo-based works on paper incorporating an 18th century French technique known as picotage, in which small areas of emulsion are flicked off the surface of a photograph or inkjet print in a pattern, using a ceramic needle tool. While two of the works on view show extensive application of the steady manual procedure required to achieve the effect, the most recent painting, Intelligence Did Not Save Anybody, does not, suggesting that the restless technical experimentation which has defined Smith’s works since his undergraduate years continues to be a primary impetus behind his studio activity.

Haw Contemporary Gallery
Viewing Hours:
Tuesday - Friday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday: Noon - 5 p.m.

https://thepaulsmithart.com