MICHAEL SMITH: Descry

“Contemplating worlds near and afar from above and below: Assembling an array of all things spherical and circular. Crystal spheres, constellation maps and the world in miniature. These objects, images and their associations crystallize in these recent works where the circular format re-directs and re-instructs the language of my paintings. As references to these works I made collages of re-assembled images that form a poetic resource of their beginnings: The Atlas Coelestis (1742) of Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr; Timothy H. O’Sullivan’s photographs of dead Confederate soldiers lying on the battlefield; NASA’s earth images; and Italian 15^th and 16^thcentury paintings by known and unknown artists. I have included several prints/watercolours I made from these studies. The paintings are fueled by these studies and by my continued fascination with the elemental forces of nature perpetuating a state of flux and renewal. These tondi both reveal and fold back the substance and material of their making. Light and colour re-emerge as both subject and turning point in a landscape of rich and new associations.”  Michael Smith