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| Paul Anthony Smith, Untitled 02. 2014, unique picotage on inkjet print, 30 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches. Image via secristgallery.com. |
Paul
Anthony Smith: Mangos and Crab
May 3 – June 14, 2014
Opening reception: Saturday, May 3, 2014, 4 – 7pm
835 West
Washington Boulevard
Chicago,
IL
From
secristgallery.com:
Paul Anthony Smith: Mangos and Crab is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the Carrie Secrist Gallery. The show comprises figurative
paintings and photographs conceived during a visit to Smith's hometown of Port
Antonio, Jamaica last summer. Engaged in a purposeful practice of watching,
Smith includes representations of both airport workers and family members, as
he articulates a desire to understand public and private identities in his
native country.
New genre
scenes cast Jamaican airport employees as symbolic representations of the
working class. Composed with large brushstrokes and simple shapes, four
monochrome paintings depict the tarmac workers’ striped vests. The paintings’
titles correspond with geographic coordinates for Norman Manley International
Airport in Kingston. Drawn to grand proportion, a final painting considers the
workers’ posture and demeanor. Placed in a deliberately abstract environment,
the workers’ obscured faces examine hierarchy and class.
In
addition, Smith exhibits manipulated photographs, created with his picotage
technique. Using a mechanical tool, Smith repetitiously picks away the top
layer of each photograph in a precise, exhaustive pattern. He scrapes away
photographed skin to reveal tears that shimmer as if flecked with glitter. A
new form of documentary photography, Smith’s picotage works engage his own
social history and descent from Jamaican emigration.
By
concealing the faces and features of his subjects, Smith references masking and
scarification. For the first time, Smith also distresses the backgrounds of his
abstract portraits, creating holographic images. This act of negation further
camouflages identities and complicates his examination of anonymity and
exchange.
Paul Anthony Smith (b. 1988, St. Ann’s
Bay, Jamaica) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Previous solo presentations
include McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX. Recent group exhibitions
include Kemper Museum and Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO as well as the Dallas
Biennial 2014, Oliver Francis Gallery, Dallas, TX. Smith was the recipient of
the Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award (2013) and participated in Art Omi
International Artists Residency, NY (2013) and A.I.R. Program, Anderson Ranch
Arts Center, CO (2012). He earned a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute,
Kansas City, MO in 2010.
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