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A note
from the curator:
Several years ago, I remember
stumbling upon Mel Smothers' work at the Red Dot Fair in Miami during Art
Basel and thinking, "hmm, this is different." His work remained
ingrained in my mind, and when Mel joined IndieWalls I was excited at the
opportunity to exhibit his paintings here in New York City.
The first thing that comes to
mind when you look at his "Andy" paintings is that it is Pop
Art. Since the 60s, Pop Art has arguably been the most popular genre of
art in the market, and it is difficult to imagine someone painting in
that style and coming up with something completely original. However,
Mel's work is original. Having spent an entire day with him and his wife
Lizzie, I have discovered that his paintings are reflections of himself
and the world that he alone experiences from his unique perspective. Each
painting is a story. For example, the figures with binoculars or cameras
featured in his paintings are actually bird watchers! Mel recounted a
trip he and Lizzie took to an island with a population of less than 500
people. They imagined their trip to be a quiet and relaxing escape, until
they discovered that it was a prime destination for hundreds of bird
watchers, arriving daily by the boatful! Instead of following the crowd
and looking in the same direction as everyone else, Mel decided to
capture the images of the bird watchers themselves. No one paints the
bird watchers, so Mel thought it would be amusing to make them the focus
of a new series of paintings.
This sense of humor and sense of
narrative is present in all his work. His relationship with Warhol
developed out of a trip he took to visit Warhol's estate in Montauk and
thought how funny it would be if he were to start a dialog with him by
sending him postcards. From this point on, Mel began a series of works
based on his everyday sightings that incorporated Andy Warhol in some
way.
The Pop Art references are the
most familiar to a viewer, because the images are iconic and reminiscent
of Andy Warhol. But in Mel's paintings, the images become secondary to
whatever else is taking place in the composition. They become wallpaper
or texture, but are rarely the focus. The bird watcher series first
included the people looking out away from the Warhol images, so that it
created an interesting, reflexive dynamic between the viewer's gaze and
the gaze of the subjects. In this case, the bird watchers have their
backs towards Warhol and their eyes on the viewers. But then Mel decided
to turn the figures around, and instead of a reflexive relationship with
the painting, we, the viewers, are now the voyeurs and have a focus to comfortably
rest our eyes on, the Warhol images.
Mel Smothers studied painting
under the master Wayne Thiebaud, and took from him the love of colors and
the generous application of paint with each brush stroke. He also took
away a love for art history, which is demonstrated in his compositions.
Like his former teacher, Mel has a passion for paint and is able to
transcribe his everyday encounters, like the one he had with the bird
watchers and his trip to Montauk.
The group of paintings on display
at Kava tonight is a small selection of a much larger body of work that
Mel Smothers has been working on for years. They are lighthearted and
fun, yet insightful and deep with experiences. I hope you enjoy getting
to know them as much as I enjoyed getting to know them and the artist.
~Sabrina Wirth
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