About the work
Friend signals a new development in Josh Smith’s long-standing interest in sculpture and sculptural media. The artist transposes the Grim Reaper, a subject Smith has frequently explored in his paintings, into an ominous towering figure whose empty face and shapeless cloak act as a formless cipher for the viewer. Friend is the artist’s largest sculpture to date and the work was forged using advanced 3D scans of maquettes that Smith made from mollusc shells and other materials. The heavily worked surface of the reddish-patinated bronze highlights the process of the work’s creation, transforming it into a meditation on the medium itself.
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About the artist
Josh Smith (b. 1976 Okinawa, Japan) is a New York- and Tennessee-based artist who works with painting, collage, sculpture, printmaking and artist’s books. He first became known in the early 2000s for a series of canvases depicting his own name, a motif that allowed him to experiment freely with abstraction, figuration and the expressive possibilities of painting. His work has since given way to varied imagery including grim reapers, leaves, fish, streetscapes and palm trees that the artist has explored in series.
Smith’s work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including at the Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany (2016); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome (2015); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2013); The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, Connecticut (2011); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (2009); De Hallen Haarlem, The Netherlands (2009-2010); Museum Moderner KunstStiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok), Vienna (2008); and SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York (2004).
For more information, please visit the gallery website: David Zwirner
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