Shades of Black and Brightness in Paul Anthony Smith’s Green Gallery Show

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Photo Credit: Myrica Von Haselberg

Paul Anthony Smith’s drawings at Green Gallery East are like flat, solid walls, until you approach more closely. They are like concrete bricks of a foundation, but mysteriously dissolved.

Smith is a Brooklyn-based artist and retains a strong connection to Jamaica where he was born and lived until age 9. His work often touches on autobiographical elements, but that is more hidden in his series Blurred Line Drawings, which is the focus of this exhibition.

In patterns like a brick wall, blocks of various shades of black are joined by ones in brighter, vivid colors. They are drawn in curlicues of oil stick and color pencil over inkjet prints, and quite large ones at that. It is hard to say what the prints actually show. They are almost entirely disguised by the drawings but you get the feeling there are figures or rooms beneath. They form a foundation as their tones and shapes work like a subtle underpainting. The architectural nature of the drawings is enlivened by what happens beneath their surface.

The exhibition includes one piece that is even more characteristic of Smith’s work, particularly for his use of picotage. This technique is usually connected with textiles, but he applies this to photographs and printed images. The surface is punctured and pulled, creating a mottled and nuanced texture. In an untitled work, a figure peers out from a subtlety ruptured surface and a dematerialized chain-link fence.

Also on view is a video titled Walk Bout. According to the gallery attendant, it was filmed in the front yard of Smith’s grandmother’s house in Jamaica. With the camera as our eyes, we are on top of a hill, just at the side of the road. The asphalt is smooth and voices waft in the air as we watch passersby. A man converses on a phone, then jogs off camera someplace. A horn beeps, and there is nearly a collision between a mint green truck and dark sedan. It is a low-key way of showing a place that is ordinary, yet graced with personal importance and a familial foundation.

Through Feb. 24 at Green Gallery, 1500 N. Farwell Ave.