THE NEW ISSUE
ISSUE 29
devoted to making oil paintings, complete with a miniature easel. He says that he may convert this spot to create silkscreen works too, but smaller ones. In the backyard is a garage, transformed into a workspace for large, mixed-media pieces. When he’s not working on projects, Smith takes his vintage Dodge Polara for an eight-minute ride to the beach to surf, fish and decompress. His life in Montauk has inspired a new purpose: Serving the People (STP). Smith’s mission for this non-profit platform is to showcase his work alongside the creations of like-minded, interdisciplinary artists without the commercial bias of the art industry. He launched a new body of work under Serving the People in January, during Frieze LA. For the exhibition entitled Fear Eats the Soil, he presented silkscreens of various Internet-found images—from a grainy image of a tarantula to a superimposed portrait of Audrey Hepburn at a diner. The show channeled a new worldview for Smith, one where he was able to produce pieces he wanted to display, and produce them with unfettered creative expression.
“ART WAS ABOUT MONEY EVERYWHERE I LOOKED. IT WAS SCARY.”
