Galerie Eva Presenhuber is pleased to present Studio News, the gallery’s sixth solo exhibition with the US-American artist Josh Smith.
In 2019, just before the dawn of COVID, Smith was interviewed by Ross Simonini for ArtReview in his studio warehouse in New York City, a multi-level live-work space and library with a lettuce garden in the basement.
Since the pandemic, Smith has emerged transformed as a new public persona. On Instagram, his presence suggests that he is an art-world ambassador, and on YouTube he hosts an ongoing lo-fi series called Studio News, in which he discusses his artistic pursuits and sometimes nothing at all. It is ‘straight man’ comedy, sprinkled with revelations about his inner life, all mixed up. It is the kind of unblinking deadpan that often looks back at you from Smith's paintings: a sincere satire.
On the occasion of his new show Studio News at Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Vienna, Smith asked Simonini to do a second interview to follow up on their initial conversation and respond to its heavy, introspective tone.
JOSH SMITH
Behind the Clouds the Starlight Lurks
2024
Oil on linen
152.5 x 122 cm / 60 x 48 in
SMITJ59629
JOSH SMITH
Looking out at the World
2024
Oil on linen
152.5 x 122 cm / 60 x 48 in
SMITJ59640
JOSH SMITH
Hope is a Thing With Wings
2024
Oil on linen
152.5 x 122 cm / 60 x 48 in
SMITJ59642
Josh Smith was born in 1976 in Okinawa, Japan (his father was in the military) and, after a number of relocations, grew up mostly in East Tennessee. He has lived in New York since 1998. He has had several solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad at institutions including The Drawing Center, New York, NY, US (2024); Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, DE (2016); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, IT (2015); The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, US (2011); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, CH (2009); De Hallen Haarlem, Haarlem, NL (2009); and MUMOK, Vienna, AT (2008). Recent group exhibitions include Motion/New Perspectives, de la Cruz Collection, Miami, FL, US (2023 – 2024); Before Tomorrow – Astrup Fearnley Museet 30 Years, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, NO (2023); Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, DE (2019-20); The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, US (2014-15); The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, US (2012); Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, FR (2011); ILLUMInations, Venice Biennale, Venice, IT (2011); and The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, New Museum, New York, NY, US (2009). His works are held in numerous public collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; MUMOK, Vienna, AT; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, US; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, US.
