Mexican street artist and illustrator “Smithe” creates intensely detailed images that combine biological and mechanical motifs. Featured here on our blog, Smithe’s art is a visual collage of everything that he loves; a mix of comics, animation, film, street art, science fiction, but mostly spontaneity and fun. Like his murals, his illustrations portray strange figures and pop-culture characters in a state of deconstruction. They stretch, distort, and melt into the floor, other times falling into a thousand little particles of themselves. Smithe explores the source of such madness in his latest body of work, “Fisuras de la Materia” (“Fissures of Matter”), currently on view at Celaya Brothers Gallery in Mexico. His exhibit features colorful paintings of human heads and other anatomical studies- visual representations of psychotic illness, where the subject has suffered a breakdown and lost all sense of reality. Notably, Smithe’s exhibit also marks the debut of his first sculpture, “Ciclotimia”, a chronic mood disorder embodied by a dark and distorted bust. With these works, Smithe poses one simple question to his viewer: “What is real?”
“Fisuras de la Materia” by Smithe is now on view at Celaya Brothers in Mexico City through December 12th, 2015.
In recent years, Mexico City has played host to some of the most progressive urban artists in the world. Many of them have come together in Celeya Brothers' anniversary exhibition, "Cuatro Igual A Uno": 3TTMan, Christiaan Conradie, Franco Fasoli aka JAZ, Fusca, Augustine Kofie, Lesuperdemon, Sten & Lex, Sanez, Smithe and Jorge Tellaeche. The group represents not only the freshman artists to show with the gallery, but also the city's international draw, hailing from the United States, South Africa, to Argentina. Take a look at more photos from the exhibition after the jump.
Greg "Craola" Simkins