Every night, Paul Anthony Smith sleeps with a brace on his right hand. It’s a precautionary measure against injury caused by the 36-year-old artist’s strenuous “picotage” process. This involves the artist puncturing the surface of an inkjet print with a potter’s needle, such as in the sunset Eye Fi Di Tropics (St. Thomas) (2023), where it adds a fence-like design on top of the original.
This innovative approach to landscape art extends to his “Dreams Deferred” series, where he layers oil stick paint on inkjet prints of his photographs. These impastoed paintings feature lush, flower-filled gardens, which are then obscured by chain link fences he spray-paints on afterward. Dreams Deferred #33 (2022), for example, severs the viewer from a bed of red roses, evoking a sense of isolation and control.
Smith is represented by Timothy Taylor in London and Jack Shainman Gallery in New York. He has also presented solo shows at Luis de Jesus Los Angeles and Green Gallery in Milwaukee.
