On Friday, October 4, interdisciplinary artist Lenard Smith, at MacDowell for his first residency, presented work from his series "Last Departure" during MacDowell Downtown at the Peterborough Town Library.
For “Last Departure,” Smith considered architectural models as a design tool and an intimate mode of exploration, the goal being to reimagine how built structures, if not physical space itself, could be conceived, visualized, and, ultimately, experienced. Smith built models by hand before taking an inquiry-based approach to photographically documenting them in his studio. The resulting images resemble the still life genre, while also revealing the artist’s grounding in surrealist strategies and visual reference points from African brutalism. Three of the prints from that series were acquired by Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Interdisciplinary Artist Lenard Smith talks Contemplative Photography
Smith, who is making large-format photographs by repurposing found materials as a way of exploring histories of readymade sculptures during his residency, is a first-generation Ghanaian American interdisciplinary artist and educator who lives and works in Los Angeles. For more than 15 years, he has been developing a signature language that combines an interest in assemblage sculpture and still life photography. Research lives at the center of his practice; scholarship on the African diaspora and architecture leads him back to the studio.
Smith has exhibited his work throughout the United States and abroad, has published six artist books, and has contributed photography to The New York Times and The Atlantic. He received an M.F.A. in advanced photographic studies from Bard College, and although he did not have an undergraduate degree, he was accepted based on prior work and life experience. This degree grounds his work in traditional practices and experimental methodologies. He is currently a visiting assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside.
(Dan Millbauer photo)
(Dan Millbauer photo)
(Dan Millbauer photo)
(Dan Millbauer photo)