ART CITIES:N.York-Josh Smith

Josh Smith first became known in the early 2000s for a series of canvases depicting his own name, a motif that allowed him to experiment freely with abstraction and figuration and the expressive possibilities of painting. His work has since given way to monochromes, gestural abstractions, and varied imagery that the artist has explored in series.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Eva Presenhuber Archive

For his solo exhibition Josh Smith presents a set of paintings depicting Watermelons, or more specifically the open face of a cut watermelon. In art history, this big contrasting fruit has been depicted countless times in all sorts of ways. Sometimes as an element, and sometimes it is the whole painting. In the case of his paintings Josh Smith, the melon is the whole painting. These paintings are modestly sized, colorful, and not too dark. As the artist says “I wanted to make these paintings because I knew, though they are simple seeming, that they would be tough to hold together. I wanted it to feel pointless at the beginning and then gain merits as I uncovered or created problems and then either solved them or forgot them…I showed the melons split, because, with all the contrast I saw in the fruit, I saw an opportunity to take restriction off of color combinations”. Originally trained as a printmaker, but primarily known for his paintings, Smith also makes sculptures, ceramics, books, prints and posters, and is a consummate draftsman. His art is deeply subjective and, by questioning contemporary tastes and norms, often counter-cultural. Typically working in series, and freely borrowing from the vocabulary of modern painting, his canvases are expressionistic, gestural and colorful. Smith works prolifically, but also strategically and methodically. Yet for all their apparent spontaneity, his canvases are ultimately the product of an intense psychological process, with some pieces taking years to complete. Smith has said that he “thinks in paint” and, to this end, his art can be seen as a vehicle for the testing of ideas and as a form of interrogation, be it about the creative process itself, what it means to be an artist, or the vagaries of everyday life.

Info: Galerie Eva Presenhuber, 39 Great Jones Street, New York, Duration: 5/5-17/6/18, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 11:00-18:00, sun 12:00-18:00, www.presenhuber.com