Mark R. Smith | Phalanxes | Viewing Room
Sutured Diamond, 2020, reclaimed textiles on wood panel, 59” diagonal
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Mark R. Smith in his Studio, photograph by Maria T.D. Inocencio, 2020
Watch a Studio Visit with Mark R. Smith:
My works in this show investigate symmetry, exploring both its promise of ecstatic visual harmony, and its potential to slip into stasis and inactivity. In making, one naturally tends to strive for balanced perfection, but the result can be closed and airless. In these works, I am testing and tempting that instinct of mine. While I have created an almost uniform collection of mirrored shapes, I have subtly altered contours and varied color pairings within each whole, so that no two halves are exactly the same and the eye and brain keep working to decipher their differences.
– Mark R. Smith, 2020
The Phalanstery, 2020, reclaimed textiles on translucent paper, 31 x 34"
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Mark R. Smith: Writings and Research
As with my past art projects, the work for Phalanxes is heavily informed by contemporary and historical narratives about social collectivism. In particular, I am examining aspects of the communistic utopian societies that flourished for a time in America during the mid-1800s. A principle architect of that movement was Charles Fourier, a French social theoretician who never lived in the U.S., but inspired several experimental communities here, including the transcendentalist community at Brook Farm in Massachusetts and the North American Phalanx in rural New Jersey.
Fourier's ideal model envisioned people living together in massive, proportionately mirrored housing formations known as phalansteries, where members could pursue their individual passions while sharing resources and enjoying gender parity and social equality. Fourier was obsessed with symmetry, not only in the architectural surroundings, but also between the inhabitants. Each resident of the phalanstery was to be paired with another possessing a matching and complimentary personality type, all calibrated to achieve maximal social balance and civic harmony.. - Mark R. Smith, 2020
Albert Brisbane, A Concise Exposition of the Doctrine of Association, 4 edition, New York, 1843
Fourier, C. (1996). Fourier: 'The Theory of the Four Movements' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Sutured Square, 2020, reclaimed textiles on wood panel, 60 x 60"
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Sutured Square (detail), 2020, reclaimed textiles on wood panel, 60 x 60"
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"Smith's images are recycled, like the fabric he incorporates in his ingenious process, which entails stencils, transfers, and reversals, meticulous planning as well as surprises along the way that keep him challenged and engaged. The great irony of his work is that while everything is borrowed, the result is thoroughly original; his salvaged thrift-shop materials such as clothing and flannel sheets are common and second-hand, his procedures unique and richly inventive."
– Sue Taylor, Art Historian and Critic
Complex Dome l, 2020, reclaimed textiles on translucent paper, 24 x 27"
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"Smith's allegiance is to ordinary as well as specialized art world audiences, and he draws inspiration from craft traditions such as story quilts and folk painting while remaining cognizant of high-art modernist principles respecting the picture plane and often resorting to the organizing device of the grid."
– Sue Taylor, Art Historian and Critic.
Ideal Pairs l, 2020, reclaimed textiles on translucent paper, 31 x 36"
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Ideal Pairs ll, 2020, reclaimed textiles on translucent paper, 31 x 36"
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More Information on Mark R. Smith
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Featured Work and Bio
Watch a recorded exhibition tour + conversation with Mark R. Smith and Linda Tesner. Recorded on October 1, 2020, at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery the video features Smith’s solo exhibition, 'Phalanxes.'
