Anthony Smith

I use abstract painting to explore complex and indefinite moral positions and to tell inscrutable stories.

I begin with simple sketches that over time become stylized such that they come to resemble calligraphy. I work on heavy-weight paper built up with a dense layer of line work, paint, and collage. Most of my works comprise larger series, which – in a process similar to that of comic book art - illustrate a theme or communicate a hermetic narrative using familiar elements such as bright colors and high-contrast line work. Although private narratives are essential to my creative process, I use them only to the end of producing works that move the viewer to impose his or her own personal narrative on them, making for a reception that is as varied and complex as the viewers themselves.

I aim in my work to create an orderly-but-exotic universe that invites play by the viewer. My pieces often begin with a set of compositional rules that change over the life of a series. My goal in changing elements in a series is to toy with, or even to thwart, the viewer's expectations in order to spark inquiry into the role that memory plays as ballast for visual understanding.