Phillip K. Smith, III
A native of the Southern California desert, Phillip K. Smith III received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture degrees at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Building upon the foundation of work established by artists such as Turrell, Irwin, Brancusi, and Nolan among others, Smith creates two and three dimensional works that draw upon the concepts of light, space, color, and form within the context of an ever-changing environment. He constantly investigates the influence of light and shadow, both natural and artificial, as it travels from within or moves across the surface of his seemingly simple, yet complex forms. The results are intensely physical works that are equally ephemeral and meditative, directly affecting the viewer’s sense of perception, breath, and pace of experience. It is here that Smith challenges us to slow down and to align ourselves with the work in order to clearly see and hear the beauty revealed before us.
Featured in the 2008 annual review in Art in America, Smith’s work has been included in on-line and print publications both nationally and internationally. His work, “Inhale/Exhale,” graces the cover and interior of Chris Van Ueffelen’s book, “500 x Art In Public”. His internationally renowned 2013 installation, Lucid Stead, is included in Henry M. Sayre’s “A World of Art”, the go-to textbook for college level art history courses.
The Los Angeles Times named Smith as one of the three "Faces to Watch in Art in 2014” and in this same year Smith launched Reflection Field, a colossal light installation exhibited on the grounds of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. The monolithic sized “five volumes of light” which comprised Reflection Field earned Smith a Los Angeles Times full-page article focused exclusively on his studio practice.
Smith’s Artist-in-Residence invitations include the Palm Springs Art Museum in 2010 and, most recently, Dartmouth College in 2015, whose lineage includes some of the most innovative artists of the last century, including Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Donald Judd. Group and solo exhibitions include, Light & Shadow Works featured at the Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Dartmouth College and Royale Projects Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Smooth Operations: Substance and Surface in Southern California Art at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster CA where he was positioned alongside well-known artists Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, DeWain Valentine, and Craig Kauffman.
Smith has, for the second time, been invited to exhibit at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in April of 2016 where he will unveil “Portals,” an 85’ diameter pavilion for light. Later this year, he will mount a solo exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum and, in conjunction with the exhibition, will create a large scale temporary installation on the shoreline of Laguna’s Main Beach.
From his studio in Palm Desert, California, he is currently working on large scale installations for the cities of West Hollywood, CA, Bellevue, WA, Scottsdale, AZ, and the middle of the California Mojave Desert.