Bio

Paul Anthony Smith (b. Jamaica, 1988) creates paintings and unique picotages on pigment prints that explore the artist’s autobiography, as well as issues of identity within the African diaspora. Referencing both W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness and Franz Fanon’s theory of diasporic cultural confusions caused by colonialism, Smith alludes to African rituals, tribal masks, and scarification to obscure and alter his subjects’ faces and skin. Through Smith’s process of picotage, rendered with the use of a ceramic tool to pick away at surfaces of photographic prints, he achieves rich textures that appear almost iridescent. With this method, Smith questions the potential of a photograph to retain and tell the truth of one's past. Smith’s work has been acquired by numerous public collections, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas, Austin, and has been featured in numerous museum exhibitions, including a solo show at the Atlanta Contemporary, a two person show at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, and group shows at the New Museum, New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; the Seattle Art Museum; the Studio Museum in Harlem; and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; among others.
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Solo Exhibitions

2014, Mangos and Crab, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL
2013, Walk Bout, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary (The MAC), Dallas, TX
2013, Transcience, ZieherSmith, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions

2014 9, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO (details)
2014, The Center is a Moving Target: Definitions of Place, Kemper Museum at the Crossroads, Kansas City, MO
2014, Dallas Biennial 2014, Oliver Francis Gallery, Dallas, TX,
2013, Charlotte Street Foundation 2013 Visual Artist Awards Exhibition, Grand Arts, Kansas City
2013, New Work From Kansas City, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
2013, Thanks For The Warning, Dolphin, Kansas City, MO
2012, Untitled, Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City
2012, Kansas City Flatfile Biennial, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City
2012, Beyond the Body, LIV Aspen Art, Aspen, CO
2012, (NO) Vacancy, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
2011, From to After, President Gallery, Harold Washington College, Chicago
2011, Beyond Bounds, Brilliants, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
2011, 5×7 project, Art House, Austin, TX
2011, America: Now and Here, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Kansas City
2011, Exchange: Show Me the Money, Greenlease Gallery, Rockhurst University, Kansas City
2011, Six, Spray Booth Gallery, Kansas City
2010, KCAI in 3D, Belger Arts Center, Kansas City
2010, (Re)Form, KCAI 125th Celebration, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City
2010, Kansas City Flatfile Biennial, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City
2009, Object Lesson, Craft in America Study Center, Los Angeles