Drawing on the art historical traditions of Pointilism and Geometric Abstraction, Paul Anthony Smith creates "picotages," named for a pattern printing technique that entails pressing textured blocks onto fabric. Trained in ceramics, Smith uses sharp, wooden tools to stipple the surfaces of photographs he has taken in New York City and Jamaica that examine the African and Caribbean diasporas. Having emigrated to the United States from his native Jamaica, Smith has long been captivated by the concept of hybrid identity–often experienced acutely by those who have migrated across borders–while mining the fraught intersections of place, memory, and dislocation. By incising his images, Smith references several cultural traditions, including African tribal masking and scarification, in which the skin is cut, leaving indelible patterns on the body. Just as these practices alter appearances, Smith's interventions complicate the surfaces of his photographs and, at times, even completely obscure portions of the images, calling into question their authority as representations of "truth." A Riley CAP Gallery exhibition.

Karen and Doug Riley Contemporary Artists Project (CAP) Gallery exhibitions are supported by Douglas County, Catherine & Terry Ferguson, Sara Foxley, and Polina & Bob Schlott.

What's pictured: Paul Anthony Smith (Jamaican, born 1988), Untitled, 7 Women, 2019, unique picotage on inkjet print, colored pencil, spray paint on museum board, 40 x 50 in., © Paul Anthony Smith. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.