Zak Smith "Midnight in the Empire"
Fredericks & Freiser Gallery
This event has ended.
Smith combines precise attention to detail and a razor-edged graphic intensity with an omnivorous eye that vacuums up influences as far-flung as comic-book realism, abstract expressionism, Japanese printmaking, and Persian miniature painting. With an intricate visual energy, Smith re-casts this preternaturally absorbing mixture into a seamless whole. "Midnight in the Empire" features compulsively dense abstract works, a grab bag of drawings and paintings on different subjects, as well as the latest installments of "Girls In The Naked Girl Business"--Smith's ongoing series of portraits of acquaintances and friends in the sex industry. The exhibition also includes "Drawings I Did Around The Time I Became A Porn Star"--a sprawling autobiographical series of sketches recording Smith's days and nights working as "male talent" in the adult film industry. In our back gallery we will be showing "They Fought A Running Engagement" featuring two of Smith's ongoing collaborations with other artists. The first is "On The Road Of Knives"--a hyperactive game-like work of battling monsters in which Smith, Nicholas DiGenova & Shawn Cheng each create an individual work on paper in response to a previous "move" by their fellow artist. In the second work, Smith and Cheng join Sean McCarthy, John Mejias, Craig Taylor, and Matt Wiegle to form "Six Versions of Blood Meridian."
[Image: Zak Smith "Mandy Morbid and Lystra Making a Tentacle Porn Movie (triptych)" (2008) Acrylic on paper: each 30 x 40 in.]
Media
Schedule
from October 10, 2008 to November 29, 2008
Artist(s)
Zak Smith, Nicholas DiGenova, Shawn Cheng, Sean McCarthy, John Mejias, Craig Taylor, Matt Wiegle