Tom Smith is a New York based artist working in painting, sculpture and video. He received a BFA from MICA, Baltimore, MD in 2006 and a MFA from The School of Visual Arts in New York, NY in 2008. Like a Kraftwerkian man-machine, he replicates the filters and textures of Adobe Photoshop and the glitches found in video interlacing with acrylic, spray paint, and collage materials.
Based in New York City, Smith received a BFA from MICA, Baltimore, MD in 2006 and a MFA from the School of Visual Arts, NY in 2008. His work has been exhibited in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Ireland and Taiwan and he has participated as artist in residence at Largo das Artes in Rio de Janeiro as well as the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna, Florida. Smith’s work has been featured in publications around the world such as the New York Times, The Creators Project (VICE), Elle and Marie Claire (Taiwan) and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Statement
Smith’s paintings depict psychedelic spaces and patterns. Within the seemingly kinetic scenes amorphous faces emerge, exaggerated eyes and lashes leer, floor tiles float over liquid forms as walls disappear.
Each painting consist of two acrylic paintings on paper. These paintings are sliced into tiny strips (1/8th of an inch wide) that are alternatively adhered to a wood panel. When the paintings are combined in this way what emerges appears like a freeze-frame of two video images in dramatic transition.
The sheer abundance of digital media in current days has altered the so-called aura of an original artwork. Rather than in response to an art object itself, a growing cultural value relies on the clicks, views and likes, the shares - the copy/paste effect of the internet - that has emerged as a new matrix for valuing art. It is within a fantastical interpretation of this digital art context that Smith conceives of his paintings.