Michael E. Smith Exhibition
Andrew Kreps Gallery
This event has ended.
394 Broadway
To make his sculptures, Smith extracts recognizable objects from the constant cycle of consumption and production that drives our modern world. Materials including clothing, plastics, machinery, as well those derived from the natural world, are stripped of their intended purpose, and reassembled to create new, sculptural forms, highlighting that while these are often discarded, they never fully disappear. Organized through a series of binaries, such as natural versus the artificial, the human versus the technological, or life versus death, Smith seeks to coax both the individual histories of his objects, as well as the larger, often invisible systems they inhabit. The emotional tenor of his sculptures is furthered by alterations made to the exhibition space itself, whether it be through ambient means (the dimming or removal of lights), the addition of sound, or interventions to pathways and thresholds. Paring down his installations to an extreme, Smith invites emptiness to shape his works as well, and the uneasy tension it brings with it, from order and harmony, to disarray and discord.
Media
Schedule
from May 12, 2023 to June 24, 2023