Past Exhibition
- Josh Smith
The American Dream
Greenwich May 7th to September 16th, 2011
JOSH SMITH
THE AMERICAN DREAM
The Brant Foundation Art Study Center is pleased to present The American Dream, an exhibition of new large-scale paintings and collages by New York-based artist Josh Smith. Smith will transform The Brant Foundation into a temporary studio where he will spend thirty days producing new work for the forthcoming exhibition. This is an appropriate scenario for the artist, as his practice is largely visceral and spontaneous. In preparation for his show, Smith consulted Urs Fischer, the artist who previous exhibited at the foundation, and Julian Schnabel, who helped design the physical space, and has incorporated their input in his plans for the exhibition.
Josh Smith’s paintings are widely known for negotiating the concept of an artist’s “signature style,” as evidenced in works where his own name appears repeatedly both signified and abstracted. His paintings further explore the contentious relationship between abstraction and realism, challenging aesthetic dominance and re-contextualizing the mundane. Counterbalancing his body of work between the deliberate and deliberately random, Smith confronts the notion of compositions created entirely by chance.
Equally paramount to Smith’s practice are his collages, which mix ordinary found material such as newspapers with painting, silk-screen, and reproductions of his own work. Some recent collages consist entirely of printed images of his existing work. These works differ in that they play with scale and the printer’s color modulation feature, experimenting with developing infinite variations of the original images. Similar to his “name paintings,” the “subject” here is the critical potential of repetition and self- reference.
Programs and Events:
Josh Smith Exhibition Announcement
Josh Smith: The American Dream Exhibition Catalogue
Josh Smith: The American Dream Exhibition Opening
Josh Smith in Venice And Connecticut
Artist Biography
Josh Smith
Josh Smith (b. 1976) is from Knoxville, Tennessee and lives and works in Brooklyn.
The work of Josh Smith is distinguished by his mastery of multiple mediums (including painting, collage, sculpture, book and printmaking, and ceramics), and his tendency to acknowledge trends in painting and sculpture by expressly upending them. His most iconic works are paintings that boldly feature his name as their subject; in recent years, the name has given way to motifs such as leaves, fish, skeletons, insects, ghosts, and sunsets. In selecting these rather arbitrary subjects and rendering them in a manner that is by turns aggressive, playful, repetitive, and oblique, Smith compels us to move beyond aesthetics towards a focus on process and looking.
Josh Smith has had several solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad at institutions such as the Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, De Hallen Haarlem, Haarlem, and MUMOK, Vienna. He has also participated in important group exhibitions such as The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Le Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse, ILLUMInations in the 2011 Venice Biennale, The Generational: Younger Than Jesus at the New Museum in New York, MoMA’s The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, and most recently, Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age, which showed at the Museum Brandhorst, Munich, and traveled to MUMOK, Vienna. His works are in numerous public collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, MUMOK, Vienna, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
SOLO
| 2017 |
Josh Smith, Standard (Oslo), Oslo, Norway |
| 2016 |
Josh Smith, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany / Josh Smith: Fishes, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium |
| 2015 |
Josh Smith, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Switzerland / Josh Smith, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, Italy / Josh Smith: Cold Fusion, Hiromi Yoshii Roppongi, Roppongi, Japan; Hiromi Yoshii Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan / Josh Smith: Sculpture, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY |
| 2014 |
Josh Smith: Unsolved Mystery, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy |
| 2013 |
24 Hours, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, SwitzerlandJosh Smith, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, New York, NYJosh Smith, Luhring Augustine, New York, NYJosh Smith, Standard (Oslo), Oslo, NorwayJosh Smith, Zabludowicz Collection, London, EnglandJosh Smith: Gauntlet of Life, Home Alone 2, New York, NY |
| 2011 |
Josh Smith, Luhring Augustine, New York, NYJosh Smith: The American Dream, Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, CT |
| 2010 |
Josh Smith: On the Water, Deitch Studios, Long Island City, NYWho Am I, De Hallen Haarlem, Haarlem, The NetherlandsJosh Smith, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy |
| 2009 |
Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, SwitzerlandCurrents, Luhring Augustine, New York, NYJosh Smith: Paintings, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo, JapanI’m Not You, Air de Paris, Paris, FranceJosh Smith Books, Printed Matter, New York, NY |
| 2008 |
Hidden Darts, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, AustriaJosh Smith / Josh Fish, Hard Hat, Geneva, SwitzerlandJosh Smith, Taxter & Spengemann, New York, NYJosh Smith: Collages, Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, BelgiumJosh Smith: Zurich Abstraction, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, SwitzerlandUnstable Ideas, Standard (Oslo), Oslo, Norway |
| 2007 |
Abstraction, Luhring Augustine, New York, NYJosh Smith: Fortescue Avenue, Fortescue Avenue/Jonathan Viner Gallery, London, England |
| 2006 |
Josh Smith, Skestos Gabriele Gallery, Chicago, ILThe city Never Sleeps, Air de Paris, Paris, FranceDial “J” for Josh, Power House, Memphis, TNJosh Smith, Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, BelgiumJosh Smith, Susanne Hilberry, Ferndale, MIStandard Norwegian Show, Standard (Oslo), Oslo, Norway |
| 2005 |
Josh Smith, Fortescue Avenue/Jonathan Viner Gallery, London, EnglandJosh Smith, Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, BelgiumMake It Plain, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, NYJosh Smith, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, Gallery NY |
| 2004 |
Josh Smith, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, NY |
| 2003 |
Chinese Paintings, M Shanghai Bistro, New York, NYDial “J” for Josh, Margo Victor Presents, Los Angeles, CAJosh Smith, Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, BelgiumJosh Smith, Volume Gallery, New York, NY |
GROUP
| 2017 |
The Gap Between the Fridge and the Cooker, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, Scotland Painting Paintings (David Reed) 1975, Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY Animal Farm, The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT, curated by Sadie Laska |
| 2016 |
Creature, The Broad, Los Angeles, CA Fredrik Vaerslev: All Around Amateur, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway; Le Consortium, Dijon, France The Power & The Glory, Charles Riva Collection, Brussels, Belgium Schiff Ahoy: Contemporary Art from the Brandhorst Collection, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany What’s My Name ?, Michel Majerus Estate, Berlin, Germany |
| 2015 |
Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany The World is Made of Stories: Works from the Astrup Fearnley Collection, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway Beneath the Surface, de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, Miami, FL Carte Blanche to Luhring Augustine, Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, France CNTRL+P: Printmaking in the 21st Century by University of Tennessee Alumni, Ewing Gallery of Art and Jacques Andre, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Monique van Genderen, Ola Rindal, Josh Smith, Kelley Walker, Josh Smith/Dieter Roth, presented by Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Cahiers d’Art, Paris, France My wife does the dishes, I do the revolution, Kimmerich, Berlin, Germany The Now Forever, Basilica Hudson, Hudson, NY The Shell (Landscapes, Portraits & Shapes), Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France Unfixed: New Painting, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ Winters—Smith, Casamadre Arte Contemporanea, Naples, Italy Works on Paper, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Switzerland |
| 2014 |
The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY ART Fahrenheit 451: Sailing into the Sea of Oblivion, Yokohama Trienniale 2014, Yokohama, Japan Artist’s Artists: James Siena, Josh Smith, and Charline von Heyl Collect Prints, International Print Center New York, New York, NY Artists for Artists: 51st Anniversary Exhibition to Benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, BASH: An Exhibition in Two Parts, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY Dallas Biennial 2014: Josh Smith + Jose Lerma, Oliver Francis Gallery, Dallas, TX Displayed, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, NY Fire! Venus over Manhattan, New York, NY Home/Sculpture, Massimo De Carlo, London, England Hypothesis for an Exhibition, Dominique Lévy Gallery, New York, NY The Image Is beside the Point, Pierot the Fool, New York, NY Mirage: Alex Israel & Josh Smith, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, NY Pouring It On, Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA Speaking through Paint: Hans Hofmann’s Legacy Today, Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, NY Stay in Love, Laurel Gitlen, New York, NY |
| 2013 |
39 Great Jones, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Switzerland Abstract Generation: Now in Print, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY DSM-V, The Future Moynihan Station, New York, NY For the Time Being: Wall Paintings Painted Walls, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany Get Out of Town, Johan Berggren Gallery, Malmö, Sweden Love of Technology, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Miami, FL Morphology of the Print, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY Passive Aggressive, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy Station to Station: A Nomadic Happening, Brooklyn, NY; Pittsburgh, PA; Chicago, IL; St. The Writing Is on the Wall, Jonathan Viner Gallery, Margate, England White Collar Crimes, Acquavella Galleries, New York, NY Xerography, firstsite, Colchester, England |
| 2012 |
Bitume et Astre Dansent, Parfois, dans la Pure Peur, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Paris, France Concatenation: Signature, Seriality, Painting, Blain|Southern, London, England Everyday Abstract—Abstract Everyday, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY Idealizing the Imaginary: Illusion and Invention in Contemporary Painting, Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI Jessica Dickinson, Liam Everett, Alex Olson, Josh Smith, Garth Weiser, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, CA Joe Bradley, Nicolas Deshayes, Eddie Peake, Dan Rees, Josh Smith, Oscar Tuazon: Surface to Surface, Josh Smith, Franz West, Neon Parc, Melbourne, Australia Mix/Remix, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY Phantom Limb: Approaches to Painting Today, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL Print/Out: 20 Years in Print, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY The Feverish Library, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, NY The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Andy Warhol, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA The Slide Show, FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France |
| 2011 |
Accrochage, Carolina Nitsch Project Room, New York, NY After Images, Musée Juif de Belgique / Joods Museum van België, Brussels, Belgium Don’t Do It, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland Le printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France Painting . . . EXPANDED, Espacio 1414, Santurce, Puerto Rico Ray’s a Laugh, Half Gallery, New York, NY Sculpture Now, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Switzerland The 54th International Art Exhibition: ILLUMInations, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy The Perfect Man Show II, White Columns, New York, NY Untitled (Painting), Luhring Augustine, New York, NY Yotta Paintings, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy |
| 2010 |
2000–2010, Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, Belgium About Us, König Galerie, Berlin, Germany Alpha Omega: Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection, DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Barbaric Freedom, Simon Lee Gallery, London, England Rise of the Rad, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA Signatures, Sutton Lane, Paris, France Twenty Five, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY When Do You See Yourself in Ten Years? Standard (Oslo), Oslo, Norway You Were There, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2009 |
Sophie von Hellermann & Josh Smith, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium; Consortium, Dijon, France Abstractionists Unite! Who Give You Just Enough to Last a Lifetime, Glendale College Art Gallery, Access All Areas, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany Cave Painting, PSM, Berlin, Germany Chapter Three: The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye, About Change, Collection Stiftung, Berlin, Germany Fax, Drawing Center, New York, NY; The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, Canada; Dowd Gallery, SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico; Para Site, Hong Kong The Generational: Younger than Jesus, New Museum, New York, NY Jettison: New Ideas in Abstraction, Trahern Gallery, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN Jonathan Viner’s Furniture Show: Donald Judd, Christian Mergert, Jorge Pardo, Giles Round, Josh Smith, Oscar Tuazon, Nicole Wermers, Franz West, Rachel Whiteread and Sophie von Hellermann, Jonathan Viner, London, England Learn to Read Art: A History of Printed Matter, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY The Living and the Dead, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, NY My Summer Show, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY The Perpetual Dialogue, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY Practice, Practice, Practice, Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX Summer Show, SAKS, Geneva, Switzerland That’s Just the Way It Is, Marvelli Gallery, New York, NY Top 10 Allegories, Francesca Pia Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland We Are Sun-Kissed and Snow-Blind, Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, France A Wild Night and a New Road, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, CA |
| 2008 |
Accidental Modernism, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York, NY Black and White Exhibition: Dean Hughes, Nadira Husain, Andrei Koschmieder, Josh Smith, Anne Spieir, Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt, Germany Book/Shelf, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Champion Zero, Rental, New York, NY Fair Market, Rental, New York, NY Meet Me around the Corner—Works from the Astrup Fearnley Collection, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway Murder Letters, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon, Portugal Painting Now and Forever, Part II, Greene Naftali Gallery/ Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY The Peanut Gallery, Journal Gallery, New York, NY Standard Sizes, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2007 |
Aleatoric Contracts, Standard (Oslo), Oslo, Norway Beneath the Underdog (or One Unopened Packet of Cigarettes), Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY Biennale de Lyon: 00s, The History of a Decade That Has Not Yet Been Named, La Sucrière, Lyon, France Conditions of Display, Locust Projects, Miami, FL Der Ficker: Thea Djordjadze, Sophie von Hellermann, Mick Peter, Tamuna Sirbiladze, Josh Smith, Emily Wardill and Franz West, Fortescue Avenue/Jonathan Viner Gallery, London, England A Fair Show: Slang and Cool Orthodoxy, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy A Few Artist’s Books: Roma Publications and Christoph Keller, ProjecteSD, Barcelona, Spain For the People of Paris, Sutton Lane, Paris, France Genesis I’m Sorry, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, NY Irreversible, Stellan Holm Gallery, New York, NY Last Attraction Next Exit, Max Wigram Gallery, London, England Malerei und Affekt, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria Michèle Didier Project—Part II: Christopher Wool and Josh Smith, Galerie Christophe Daviet-Thery, Off Modern, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France Painting as Fact—Fact as Fiction, de Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich, Switzerland The Third Mind: Carte Blanche a Ugo Rondinone, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France What Glue Do You Use? Atelier Cardenas Bellanger, Paris, France what we do is secret, Blancpain Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland |
| 2006 |
Bill Saylor, Josh Smith, Hiromi Yoshii Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Color Aside, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY The Dimes of March, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, NY Gedi Sibony and Josh Smith, Harris Lieberman, New York, NY Hold That Elevator, Julia C. Butridge Gallery, Dougherty Arts Center, Austin, TX In Dialogue, Elizabeth Dee, New York, NY Paper, Skestos Gabriele Gallery, Chicago, IL Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, NY Slow Burn, Galerie Edward Mitterrand, Geneva, Switzerland Take One, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX Under Pressure, Art:Concept, Paris, France USA Today, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Wade Guyton, Seth Price, Josh Smith, Kelley Walker, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland When the Revolution Comes, Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York, NY |
| 2005 |
Uncertain States of America, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway; Serpentine Gallery, London, Helter Skelter, Capsule Gallery, New York, NY I’m a Child of Divorce, Give Me a Break, Cynthia Broan Gallery, New York, NY In Practice Fall ’05, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY Interstate, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, NY KIOSK: Modes of Multiplication and Liam Gillick: Edgar Schmitz, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England Lesser New York, Fia Backström Production, Brooklyn, NY Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA New York’s Finest, CANADA, New York, NY New York Twice, Air de Paris, Paris, France Paintings, Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Ferndale, MI Paper, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, NY POST MoDERN, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, NY Ruptures des évidences, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France Situational Prosthetics, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA Sophie von Hellerman and Josh Smith: Collaborations, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2004 |
Collection (or, How I Spent a Year), P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY East Village ASU, B-Side Gallery, New York, NY Me, Myself, and I, Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL Repetition, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY So Few Opportunities, So Many Mistakes, Champion Fine Art, New York, NY |
| 2003 |
25th Ljubljana Graphic Arts Biennial, Ljubljana, Slovenia Mighty Graphitey, Feature Inc., New York, NY |
| 2002 |
Copy Books, Roth Horowitz, New York, NY |
| 2000 |
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH New Work: Abstract Painting, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA |
| 1999 |
Mr. Fascination, Threadwaxing Space, New York, NY |
| 1998 |
Remix, Team Gallery, New York, NY |
Each work implies that there are others. There is a painting before, and there will be one after.
– Josh Smith
Josh's dinosaur carries the threat of figurative painting, creating the flesh of a monster, a huge body stretched out against a blackened sky. Yellow gold fumes rising behind his tiny, clawed hands and giant head; the volcano in the background exploding and raining down little red circles that bedizen the darkness and the dinosaur. This painterly zoosh in the background --it's blood, it's flesh, it's semen. Virility, productivity, fecundity, circulation of capital, flows of paint and desire. The giant Tyrannosaurus becomes an allegory for the death of painting, along with Josh;'s human skeletons, handprints, fish, leaves, and all the conventions of high school art classes, which populate the American Dream.
– David Rimanelli
