A Mountain of Skulls and Not One I Recognize

PastExhibition

Feb 11

Guy Richards Smit
A Mountain of Skulls and Not One I Recognize

February 27 - April 9, 2016

SHOW CATALOG (PDF)
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)

Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present New York-based artist Guy Richards Smit in his first solo show with the gallery. A Mountain of Skulls and Not One I Recognize presents an exhaustive, dizzying collection of watercolor and gouache paintings from the last year.

The ambitious A Mountain of Skulls…. is an oddly affecting meditation on mortality, history and unbelievable human suffering. A village’s worth of the dead, dumped in a mass grave with their personalities, traits, desires and dramas intact. A lumbering death march of wise cracking memento moris demanding their humanity be acknowledged. Also, in the exhibition, works from Smit’s “NY Times” Front Page series, as well as “NY Times, Friday, September 13, 2013,” an enormous multipage watercolor, ranging from hard news, art reviews, market reports, lifestyle ruminations and sports, which art critic Roberta Smith described as “an a tour de force that showcases his considerable talents for satire, stand-up, endurance art and painting”.

Born and raised in New York City, Guy Richards Smit is a video artist, performer, musician and painter who’s work has been seen at biennials in Havana, Valencia, at ARCOMadrid and Dublin Contemporary in 2011 as well as at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Hirshhorn Museum In Washington DC. He was recently included in the exhibition “Stand Up” at The Pompidou Center, Paris. Solo exhibitions include the Grossmalerman! Show at Pierogi Gallery, New York, USA 2015; Schroeder, Romero and Shredder, 2011, Fred [London] Ltd., London, UK 2009; Nausea 2, Premier Series, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA 2004; QED, Los Angeles, CA in 2006. He has received awards including the Penny McCall Foundation Award in 2004. He recently completed a 5 episode sitcom called The Grossmalerman Show with the legendary director Joshua White (Max Headroom, Seinfeld, etc).