Undercurrents: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art

Undercurrents features thirty acquisitions from the past five years representing the exciting growth of the KMA’s contemporary collection through gifts and purchases. It includes a diverse selection of figurative works by Katherine Bernhardt, Richard Jolley, John Kelley, Marin Majic, Daniel Pitin, Denise Stewart-Sanabria, and Charles E. Williams; abstractions by Hamlett Dobbins, Michelle Grabner, Howard Hull, Josh Smith, and Jered Sprecher; sculptures by John Himmelfarb and Creighton Michael, atmospheric photographs by David Allee and Robert von Sternberg, and works that test the boundary between representation and abstraction by Nathan Hylden and Antonio Santin. Spotlighting artists from East Tennessee and beyond, Undercurrents attests to the wealth of new ideas invigorating international contemporary art. 
 
Contemporary painter Josh Smith challenges notions of authorship, authenticity, originality, and an artist’s “signature style.” He often works in series featuring specific motifs—fish, tropical sunsets, skeletons, the Grim Reaper—painted on a large scale using garish color combinations and spontaneous brushwork that intentionally resists traditional expectations of artistic “finish.” Perhaps Smith’s best-known and most frequent motif is his own name, which acts both as an image and as a signifier of his identity. In these two untitled works, however, the artist uses the impression of his hand as a timeless form of artistic identity and self-reference.