ISSUE FIVE. WINTER 2021
ISSUE FIVE
WINTER 2021
A COLLECTION OF IMAGES, PROJECTS, AND THOUGHTS FROM THE STUDIO OF PHILLIP K. SMITH III
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PKS3 STUDIO
What. When. Where Luminous Visions: Phillip K. Smith III and Light Across the Collection
New Work Exhibition PKS3 Studio, Palm Desert CA
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo OH
THROUGH
FEB - MAY, 2021
APR 4, 2021
To celebrate the significant acquisition of Smith’s Flat Torus 4, the Toledo Museum of Art currently presents “Luminous Visions: Phillip K Smith III and Light Across the Collection.” This exhibition considers Flat Torus 4 alongside objects from the Toledo Museum of Art’s collection that span time, culture, and media and explore the theme of light from a wide range of perspectives. These perspectives include the importance of light in religious or spiritual practices; studies of optics and color theory; applications of translucent and reflective materials; studies of light at different times of day; “Luminist” approaches to light in American landscape painting; the absence of light; and photographic explorations of light and shadow. www.toledomuseum.org
Running parallel to Desert X 2021, Smith will present a series of new works at his PKS3 Studio in Palm Desert. On display will be a new Portal Variant, a singular large scale installation that defines an infinite space of color, and new work from his upcoming Cool/Warm Series, which investigates shifting white light across planar glass surfaces.
SITE: Art and Architecture in the Digital Space
PKS3 Studio Visits
Library Street Collective virtual exhibition
See the work in person. During Covid-19, PKS3 Studio is safely open for studio visits in a variety of ways: 1. Private studio appointments with social distancing. 2. Zero interaction, private visits with artist available remotely via phone. 3. Virtual studio appointments via Zoom. 4. Additionally, there are available options for in-home viewing coordinated through The Art Collective.
MAY - OCT, 2020
To schedule one of these options, please contact Arlene Amick, PKS3 Studio Manager, at arlene@pks3.com
Special Thanks to:
The past few years have seen substantial growth and expansion of digital strategies in the art world, adopted in a number of variations by galleries, art fairs, and institutions; these platforms are important to expand audience reach but do little to push conceptual boundaries within the digital realm. Library Street Collective developed a unique digital connection between the visual arts and the built environment, incorporating aspects of storytelling, architectural history, and an artist’s unique perspective through the pre-
sentation of “SITE: Art and Architecture in the Digital Space.” Each exhibition featured within this digital platform will respond to its environment –making connections between art and place. The first iteration of SITE, featuring work by Phillip K. Smith III and a selection of artists, was presented within Detroit’s Historic State Savings Bank, designed in 1900 by renowned architects McKim, Mead & White. www.lscgallerysite.com
I would like to thank Dallas Price + Bob Van Breda, Dick Minium + his team, Aragon Construction, Eric Long at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Javier + the team at ADM Works, Richard Fulk at Piedmont Plastics, The Art Collective, and Heath Satow. In particular, I would like to thank my team: BurzeenContractor, Perry Scanlon, Arlene Amick, Lance Gerber, and Mariana Pariani for soldiering through 2020 while paving the way for a wave of new projects in 2021 and 2022. Onward! Credits: Photography: Lance Gerber Studio @lance.gerber Graphic Design: Mariana Pariani @girlpilot WWW.PKS3.COM PHILLIPKSMITH3
#PKS3
#PHILLIPKSMITH3
ISSUE FIVE. WINTER 2021
Three Half Lozenges Newark Museum of Art
In October, Three Half Lozenges was officially approved by the Newark Museum of Art as a permanent acquisition installed in the Summer/ Fall of 2021. Smith’s installation will animate the museum’s three twostory-high arched windows on its 1920’s main façade via shifting light, oscillating between gradating half lozenges and full fields of color.
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PKS3 STUDIO
Flat Torus Variants Acrylic, aluminum, plywood, LED lighting, electronic components, unique color program
This Summer and Fall, Smith has been working on new variants of his on-going Flat Torus series, further progressing his experimentation with light at all scales. At approximately 2’ and 4’ diameters, these variants push Smith’s acrylic canvas and color orchestration to a new level of complexity given the density and adjacency of color across a smaller, more intimate, circular plane. Available in a limited series, each with a unique color choreography, these new Flat Torus Variants squarely place their color inspiration within the spectrum of colors evidenced in the lit sky. From dusty browns to noontime yellows to the deep purples of the unfurling night sky, it is a spectrum composed to evoke an emotional response while triggering color memory and changing perceptions of space. In 2016, when Smith first sketched his Flat Torus series, he conceived of color shifting works that would flatten his earlier, more voluptuous Lightworks forms. Relying less on form and more on color, he would
create a perceived spatial experience defined by color within a flat surface. The original Flat Torus works are a set group of 9 individual unique works, all 6’ in diameter x about 3.5” deep, that have been released in groups of three. Each group is flatter than the last and has allowed Smith to experiment differently with color, space, and pace of change as the series progresses towards completion. All works transmit light through translucent and opaque white acrylic, creating a dynamic planar surface for light. The first three Flat Torus works were released in 2018, the second three in 2019, and the final three works, currently in development, will be available in 2021. After the Toledo Art Museum’s recent acquisition of Flat Torus 4, Flat Torus 6 is the last of the second group currently available. Flat Torus Variants 3, 4, and 5 are currently available and on view at PKS3 Studio.
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Left: Flat Torus - Variant 4 at PKS3 Studio - 48” x 48” x 5.5” Above: Smith inspecting Flat Torus - Variant 3 - 48” x 48” x 5.5”
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Santa Monica Linear Aluminum, glass, LED lighting, electronic components, unique color program. 30’ long x 30” high x 28” deep
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I first met Dallas Price and Bob Van Breda at my opening of Portals: A Space for Color at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. They were aware of my work through the Palm Springs Art Museum and my involvement with the inaugural Desert X. That night, Dallas invited me to visit their home in Santa Monica with this mandate: “I want something for my hill.” The “hill,” a 42-degree slope coated in a lush landscape and topped with 60’ tall eucalyptus trees, defines a 110’ tall wall of green on the northeast side of their historic and sprawling Ray Kappe home and property. Flanked by an early James Turrell Skyspace and a 40’ tall Nancy Rubins, the proposed site itself holds ingrained importance when visiting the property. Dallas had been drawn to my Desert X installation, The Circle of Land and Sky, and was interested in that logic being applied to the hillside. However, after seeing the site in person, I felt the scale of the landscape required a singular, monolithic gesture—in this case, horizontal—to
separate from and interact with the plantings and greenery of the site. In addition, the hill is predominantly viewed from below, defining an angle of reflection focused on the sky or the treetops, depending on where you are on the property. Given these existing elements and key site factors, I proposed Santa Monica Linear, a 30’ long horizontal line of reflected sky inserted into that 110’ wall of green. It is as though someone took an eraser, ran it horizontally across the landscape, and then replaced it with the sky. During the day, the artwork constantly shifts with the moving clouds and colors of the Santa Monica atmosphere. The adjacency of the Pacific Ocean creates conditions that range from fast-moving fog to a perfect partly cloudy sky to pure blue to the glow of colors at sunset. All of these conditions become part of Santa Monica Linear. >>
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>> With the reflective surface elevated and facing south, the piece reflects the lit sky miles to the South, even when the hillside is in the shade in the late afternoon. At sunset, the reflection of on-shore moving clouds merges with floating, shifting gradients of light. Reds emanate from the center and dissipate into reflection. A deep royal blue blends to a yellow across the entire face of the artwork. Hazy purple gradients anchor the left and right, blending to the blackness of the night sky at the center. The pace of this color choreography inspires stillness. Like watching a sunset, presence and focus are the simple requirements in order to witness awe-inspiring change. Just as each new day’s sky is entirely unique, so is Santa Monica Linear.
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Portal–Variant 1 Fiberglass, automotive paint, LED lighting, electronic components, unique color program. 6’-8” x 6’-8” x 14”
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First exhibited within an 85’ diameter pavilion of light designed by Smith for the 2016 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Portals have continued to be a source of inspiration for Smith. Ten original 6’ diameter x 2’ deep low sheen white Portals were created as the first and only pieces in this series until recently. Working from the complexity and density of color and composition within his recent Flat Torus works, Smith wanted to bring a similar complexity to the Portals series. Inspired by the site conditions for a private commission, Smith proposed his Portals series first new iteration since the original Coachella project: Portal –Variant 1. At 6’-8” in diameter, this new Portal is an imposing, circular, goldcopper metallic work that merges light, shadow, and color across an undulating surface of concentric rings. The metallic finish, interacting with the shifting color, yields a “metallic light” across the work, transforming opaque surfaces into seemingly transparent and translucent opalescent curves. The metallic surface, lit by ambient light during the day, pushes forward, while the shifting color at night takes precedence. Inspired by this new direction of the Portal series, Smith is currently working on Portal –Variant 2, with a metallic silver base color, which will be on view in the studio early in 2021.
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Phillip K. Smith, Santa Monica Linear, 2020. Private residence in Santa Monica, CA. Photograph by Lance Gerber Studio.