JOSH SMITH

American artist Josh Smith is renowned for the diversity of his artistic practice and for the wide range of different styles in which he works. 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 colourful. 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.