From the middle of a gridded construction fabricated from striped orbs and rectangular shapes are two parts redolent of eyes. Seeming to look out from the largely summary composition, these facial options are augmented by types that mimic ears, noses, and mouths all nested inside the vivid patterns.
The work of Chicago-based artist Geoffrey Todd Smith, these ambiguous portraits rendered in gouache and ink reference masks or mirrored reflections, revealing a distant determine with out a outlined id. “To be trustworthy, I hold pondering of them as evolving types,” he tells Colossal. “I attempt to discover new issues in them once I take a look at them. I’m not totally positive I wish to determine them out as a result of I most likely gained’t wish to make them if I perceive them.”
Regularly drawn to abstraction and geometry, Smith is understood for his mesmerizing works that infuse elaborate, usually zigzagged motifs with easy constructions. Vibrant spheres appear to spill throughout the paper, creating trippy, symmetric compositions bursting with vitality.
The artist departs from pure abstraction on this new physique of labor as he incorporates humanoid parts amid his interlocked shapes. Geometry nonetheless offers a scaffolding, although. He provides:
If there’s a break from logic, that sense of order can shortly collapse, creating pressure, type of like eradicating the underside items in a sport of Jenga. Both method, geometry helps me assemble a type of sport board to which I reply with extra ornamental or decorative choices. Even the ornamental hand-drawn parts play an optical and structural position. They both assert or intervene with order, relying on how I manipulate them.
These decorative additions are the product of a sluggish, introspective course of. Smith prefers to not combine colours and as a substitute layers supplies to realize a selected palette.
“The mark from a gel pen is so speedy and relatable. I like that they have been marketed to youngsters as a result of no person feels fairly as deeply as they do at that age,” he says. “I consider the depth and rigor of my marks as mysterious emoting or like writing a gut-wrenching, summary love letter.”
For those who’re in Chicago, you’ll be able to see Smith’s solo present Meeting at Western Exhibitions by means of April 12. In any other case, discover extra of his work on his website and Instagram.
