Alexis Smith, “It’s Up to You” (2008), mixed media, 21 1/2 x 27 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches (all images courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York)
On the occasion of viewing Alexis Smith at Garth Greenan Gallery (October 22–December 5, 2015).
Pathetic, just pathetic, to expect
Strangers to know your name I guess
Such is the price of fame
Alexis Smith, “Slice of Life” (2009), mixed media, 23 x 22 3/4 inches
Loraine, it’s up to you
Alexis Smith what’s this
Sad confluence of solitudes
Alexis Smith, “Vermeer Diptych” (2013), mixed media, 21 1/2 x 17 1/4 x 15 inches (click to enlarge)
A Vermeer diptych that’s split
But did you also feel that way
Say, couldn’t it be an image war
Alexis Smith, “Strangelove” (2004), mixed media, 30 1/8 x 24 1/4 x 3 1/8 inches
You fought yourself for anonymity
Easy to kill it when you live at home with mother
The generation gap – draw me a map
Alexis Smith, “High Society” (2013), mixed media, 30 x 21 3/4 inches
Family values: easy to murder the other
Anger walking back and forth in a
Small train looks in, sees, pees
Alexis Smith, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (2013), mixed media, 10 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches
Maybe, sucks in his lip, seer-up, paces
Jester, we see each other across the threshold
Maybe, rap but wind up black and blue ways
Alexis Smith, “Riches Have Wings” (2002), mixed media, 26 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches
Of moving back
Down lover’s lane
Riches have wings
Alexis Smith, “Lonesome Cowboy” (2002), mixed media, 54 1/4 x 40 1/2 x 3 inches
These are found things
Lonesome cowboy
You’re a Kerouac haiku
Just a slice of life but whose
Alexis Smith, “Jester” (2013), mixed media, 25 x 18 inches
Calamity Jack of you don’t know Dick
Diamonds stairway to the stars
A bit like Magritte
Alexis Smith, “Kerouac Haiku” (1994), mixed media, 27 3/4 x 32 7/8 x 2 3/4 inches (click to enlarge)
This is how things exist, folks
The adventures of Huck Finn in high society
Or the Queen of Hearts for Jane’s strange love
Alexis Smith continues at Garth Greenan Gallery (529 West 20th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan) thorugh December 5.
by Ben La Rocco on November 8, 2015
