GREG SMITH
NOW-TIME-FOREVER-VOID, 2025
Canvas, acrylic, polyester organza, tulle, polyester thread, aluminum and fiberglass screen, rocks, bricks, encaustic, graphite, EMT tube, HDPE sheet, polyester sheet, cotton paper, dirt, wood, hardware
96 x 72 x 10 in.
Copyright The Artist
$ 20,000.00
The piece features cut-out letters suspended from delicate tulle, evoking the fragile, ethereal nature of language that fascinates Greg Smith. A heavy canvas, also punctured with letters, anchors the lighter...
The piece features cut-out letters suspended from delicate tulle, evoking the fragile, ethereal nature of language that fascinates Greg Smith. A heavy canvas, also punctured with letters, anchors the lighter fabric, creating a tension between lightness and burden, absence and presence. From this canvas hangs “VOIDWEAR,” a distorted reinterpretation of courtroom attire that amplifies the discomfort and authority associated with the legal system.
Smith’s work engages with language as both medium and constraint, drawing inspiration from the idiosyncratic “legalese” of conspiracy theorist David Wynn Miller. Miller’s invented grammar and syntax sought to expose corruption in legal systems but instead rendered meaning absurd and inaccessible. By materializing these tensions—through weight, cut-outs, and precarious suspension—Smith transforms language and attire into a visceral exploration of authority, communication, and the systems that govern them.
GREG SMITH (b. 1970), in addition to receiving his MFA from Hunter College in 2005, graduated with a PhD in Physics from Harvard University in 2000. The artist is well-qualified and known for staging exhibitions that consider the possibilities and problems presented by our current technological deluge. He builds installations using an amalgam of unlikely materials and processes that trace contemporary limits of language, ownership, and governance. Through his enigmatic work, the artist navigates how systems of communication are constructed, dispersed, and convoluted. Smith was awarded a Guggenheim Grant in 2013 and has had solo exhibitions at the Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; and White Columns, NYC. His work has been featured in exhibitions at The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, FL; Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL; Marlborough, London, United Kingdom; and the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
Smith’s work engages with language as both medium and constraint, drawing inspiration from the idiosyncratic “legalese” of conspiracy theorist David Wynn Miller. Miller’s invented grammar and syntax sought to expose corruption in legal systems but instead rendered meaning absurd and inaccessible. By materializing these tensions—through weight, cut-outs, and precarious suspension—Smith transforms language and attire into a visceral exploration of authority, communication, and the systems that govern them.
GREG SMITH (b. 1970), in addition to receiving his MFA from Hunter College in 2005, graduated with a PhD in Physics from Harvard University in 2000. The artist is well-qualified and known for staging exhibitions that consider the possibilities and problems presented by our current technological deluge. He builds installations using an amalgam of unlikely materials and processes that trace contemporary limits of language, ownership, and governance. Through his enigmatic work, the artist navigates how systems of communication are constructed, dispersed, and convoluted. Smith was awarded a Guggenheim Grant in 2013 and has had solo exhibitions at the Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; and White Columns, NYC. His work has been featured in exhibitions at The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, FL; Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL; Marlborough, London, United Kingdom; and the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.