Philip Smith

Fields Of Energy

February 23, 2023 - April 12, 2023

Stockholm

Carling Dalenson is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by American artist Philip Smith.

Philip Smith’s pictographic language first appeared with his participation in the historic Pictures exhibition with Robert Longo, Sherrie Levine, Troy Brauntuch and Jack Goldstein.  On large vertical ten foot rolls of paper he created a field of disparate images from found pictures to create a new narrative.

Philip Smith’s pictographic language is drawn from diverse sources ranging from texts on alchemy, spy manuals, Jain painting, nuclear handbooks and old advertisements. In many ways, the creation and viewing of Smith’s work is like an archaeological dig—the deeper you go, the more treasures you discover. For Smith, images are the universal language.  It’s what psychics and mediums use to communicate with other dimensions, it’s what religions have used to educate and inspire in pre-literate societies, and it has become the default language of the digital world.

In his paintings, Smith organizes images into a dream-like narrative and specific energy patterns for the benefit of the viewer.  As a young man, Smith travelled through India and Nepal where he encountered monks creating thankgas—unique paintings of Buddha that are imbued with a special energy to provide the viewer with a blessing, an answer to a prayer or insight into their world.

Smith grew up in a world a talking spirits and miraculous healings. His father was a remarkable healer who cured thousands of people of lethal conditions and was often found in conversation with invisible beings. The importance of the invisible world has always influenced Smith’s work. Based on his father’s teachings and the monk’s paintings, Smith began to create paintings that were not only visually compelling but contained special energies to positively impact the life of the viewer.

In his visual lexicon Smith uses found images that convey his message and can have multiple meanings.  For example, in certain paintings, an image of a diamond may appear. This may refer to the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist text that discusses wisdom and insight freeing us from illusion or it may refer to the Japanese phrase, “Ren Ma” which refers to polishing one’s self to transform your self from a lump of coal into a glistening diamond of perfection.  Smith spent twenty five years training in a Japanese dojo which furthered his philosophical training.

Often hands are used in the painting to convey healing, blessings and energy transmission or an indication to pay attention. Numbers can represent the invisible logic that orders the universe, the fortune telling aspect of numerology and of magic squares that represent the influential power of the planets. And, of course, DNA, the life force that connects us to all living things.

In the recent paintings created for this exhibition, Smith uses circular vortexes as energy generators to push the paintings energy out toward the viewer.  The idea is to create an energetic source that continues to emanate to the viewer.

For his entire career, Smith has always made paintings based on drawing or mark-making.  For many years, Smith incised his images into a wet paint mixture composed of cold wax, oil paint and clove oil.  Recently, he has used a type of pigment mixed with wax to create his images. Every traditional culture with an advance system of art making used drawing as a form of communication and art.  From the Egyptians and Chinese to Incas and Mayans, these cultures would incise images into stone as a way to record and communicate.  Drawing is a primal, intuitive and immediate form of communication.  

Smith’s work is both ancient and completely contemporary. 

Philip Smith has participated in the Whitney and Beijing Biennials. His work is in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of Art, Boston MFA, MOCA, San Diego, Dallas Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Allen Museum, Oberlin among many others. Recently, one of Smith's latest works was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.