Josh Smith: Life Drawing

June 21–September 15, 2024

On the occasion of Frank Walter: To Capture a Soul, The Drawing Center will present Josh Smith: Life Drawing, the first exhibition of drawings by acclaimed contemporary artist Josh Smith. Josh Smith: Life Drawing will be the artist’s homage to Antiguan artist Frank Walter, a testament to a shared commitment to approaching their subjects with honesty, curiosity and humble dedication. The exhibition will include approximately thirty drawings by Smith that span the artist’s career. Known for his vibrant paintings and prints ranging from abstractions to subjects such as leaves, fish, birds, “Grim Reapers”, and palm trees, Smith has also been making simple pen and pencil sketches of these subjects for more than two decades.

Whereas Smith’s large-scale paintings and prints strike the viewer with their coloristic intensity and bold execution, the artist’s drawings are highly focused renderings that reflect Smith’s sensitivity to his media and his skill as a draftsman. In these modestly-scaled sketches of fish and fowl, fragments from life and evocations of death, Smith echoes Walter in creating a meditative world in which reality and the imagination are inextricably connected. In Smith’s words, “Frank and I share the love for making deep and beautiful images. Regardless of what that means.” Together, Smith and Walter do away with pretense, their commitment to rendering and re-rendering simple subjects suggesting that it is enough for an artist to apply him or herself to the surrounding world and to share that vision with others.

Learn more at The Drawing Center.