Exploring the Riches of Visual Arts in Kentucky: A Conversation with Patrick Smith
A peek into Smith’s portfolio. Photos courtesy of Joey Howard.
When discussing emerging artists, there are a number of blockbuster artists that captivate media attention. However, this series aims to highlight visual artists working in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois to showcase their work and philosophies and bring attention to the rich environments where the arts flourish in our region. In this post we are pleased to feature the work of Patrick Smith.
Patrick Smith has exhibited at Moremen Gallery, Institute 193, and the UK Art Museum. He has an upcoming exhibition at Moremen Gallery opening May 12th. His work can be found on his Instagram @theartistpatricksmith.
Patrick Smith’s home studio in Lexington, KY is what you would expect an artist’s studio to look like: filled to the brim with art, collected objects, and beaming natural light. However, there doesn’t seem to be a divide between where he creates and where he lives; a fluidity that extends to his practice. Smith could easily employ the pretentious artist trope with the impressive works that line his walls, but he is welcoming, curious, and secure in who he is and the work he produces. Smith’s subjects are depicted in patient layers of acrylic washes that build a sense of realism, encouraging a sense of intimacy between artist and subject, as well as viewer and artwork. Reminiscent of the Dutch masters in terms of depth, drama, and intensity, Smith’s theatrical compositions and striking lighting place bodies that might otherwise be considered on the fringes of representation at the center of contemporary portraiture.
ORIGIN STORY
Patrick Smith: It all started with this crazy incident on New Year's Day when I got bit by this humongous dog while playing tennis. I had this friend who has one of those dogs that's like a crazy dog. But then she'd say, oh, it never bites anybody…
While being treated for the bite, Smith subsequently became sick from the medicine doctors prescribed. No longer having the stamina to work on a large-scale painting, but still having the need to create, Smith began working on smaller studies on paper. Although working on a smaller scale was initially just for fun, Smith’s first tiny painting was lauded by friends as the coolest thing he’d ever done. That was almost eight years ago and Smith never painted on canvas again.
Patrick Smith: You don't need anyone's permission to make your best work. Making your best work is a decision to make your best work and that can happen at any moment.
One thing led to another, and eventually he had created upwards of 30 small works on paper. Courtesy of Joey Howard.
BOMBING HARD
In 2012, Smith created an exhibition that did not garner the reception one would hope to receive. While people in Smith’s own social circles loved the work, collectors thought it was completely out of bounds.
Patrick Smith: I've bombed hard, but I've never bombed that hard. I mean, that was like that was mayhem… people fucking hated it. People have done shows kind of like that since then and everyone's like, ‘Oh, it's so cool.’ But when I did it? Oh my god. There were people walking out of the gallery, slamming the door. The world was so different back then. No one wanted to be associated with that kind of painting, it was too much too soon.
His gallerist, Chuck Swanson, was supportive of Smith’s work and pushed him to continue with the show. Following the exhibition, Moveable Feast, a volunteer-driven organization committed to enhancing the quality of life for individuals living with HIV and AIDS charity, also showcased Smith’s work. Consequently, Smith’s mother ended up working for the charity and still does.
We wander into Smith’s studio, where he reminisces on his first gallery bombing in 2011. Courtesy of Joey Howard.
PHILOSOPHIES ON ART APPRECIATION AND COLLECTING, FT. MADISON KELLEY
Patrick Smith: Being a legitimately good artist and having a career are two different things. Have you ever walked into a room of French paintings from 1870 and said, ‘How much money was that guy making? Honestly, it's cooler when you're like, where did he live? He was in jail. You’re wondering, how did he pull that off? Everyone you see just has different ways that they've failed. Everyone likes that because you see yourself in that story.
Smith takes reference photos in his studio, where large, erotic, paintings that look like they could have been a part of 80s punk movements provide a stark contrast to where his work has since evolved. Courtesy of Joey Howard.
Smith suggests “It takes way more than a pocketbook to be a collector.” But even more perplexing is the issue of taste. Why is taste your taste, where does it come from? Smith wonders, “What does it boil down to?”
Madison Kelley: For me, it's often visual intrigue. I don't want to assume that it's like that for other people. Why is anyone interested in anything? They might have a connection to the subject, maybe it’s trendy. Taste is a weird thing to try and pin down. It's different from person to person. No one should have the same collection, and if they do, then maybe they aren’t doing it right.
Patrick Smith: A lot of people have done that. That's something that's criticized a lot, collectors that just sort of check the boxes.
Smith feels that sometimes collectors may follow trends among fellow art world players, and perhaps a lesson to keep in mind is listening to that feeling art can evoke within us. Ultimately, Smith says, art is all about the kind of mood you create, the simple fact that you can’t put words to something is why a painting exists.
Courtesy of Joey Howard.
Patrick Smith: Everyone who's alive is dealing with the same thing. We don't know what life is, we don't know what death really is. In addition to all of the mundane things, like having to go to the grocery store and have a job and participate in the economy, we have deeper spiritual questions. Various religions and philosophies have answers for that, but art is also a way of dealing with that. And certain artists are more innately gifted at being able to do that in a way that makes people see the world in a deeper way. But not everybody can. It's a unique person in society.
Madison Kelley: And that goes beyond just the ability to learn the skill of drawing or painting.
Patrick Smith: Yeah, you can do that in any way you want. You could do that in an abstract way. You could do that really simply. There are cave paintings that do that.
Madison Kelley: Those people were drawing before they were writing. The connection of visual imagery between people across time has existed far longer than written language, books, film, and all kinds of media. Even now, people are still making art after photography could have rendered it useless, but it didn’t, people still commission portraits. There’s some deeper, innate sense, where artists have to or want to do this.
Patrick Smith: Goya’s Black Paintings were just painted on the walls of his house. They’re some of the most intense works that we've seen. They're ubiquitous. They're part of us. But at the time, they changed the way people saw visual communication completely.
I try to imagine what it must have felt like. This is like pre-enlightenment? What is the average vocabulary of a 13th-century peasant? You walk into a church and you've never seen gold, you've never had electricity, you live in an agrarian hut and you walk into a cathedral and you see all this.
Madison Kelley: And it’s something that they’ve been working on for centuries, which we have no conception of. Generations of families would work on one cathedral. All of their time, all of their money, all of their efforts, went into this one place because that was the epicenter of their culture.
Patrick Smith: I bet if you put a bunch of heart rate monitors and blood pressure stuff on someone from that era and put them into a cathedral, it would be the equivalent of doing a line of cocaine or something. I bet their heart rate was at 160 as they walked in.
Madison Kelley: Totally. Now I'm just thinking about how the invention of stained glass might have killed a feudal peasant.
If you are an artist living or working in Kentucky, Illinois, or Indiana and are interested in a studio interview, contact us at info@loappraisals.com.
