Geoffrey Todd Smith

October 09, 2012, 8:25am

Geoffrey Todd Smith at Western Exhibitions

Geoffrey Todd Smith recently opened his third solo show at Western Exhibitions entitled Looker. The show features an array of vibrant, uber-meticulous enamel/gouache/ink paintings on panel. The new group of paintings is a slight departure from his previous body of work of edge-to-edge pattern-fields, now employing a larger pattern within the micro-pattern; often these larger patterns resemble the irregular compositions of Gee’s Bend quilts. In some moments the paintings are strikingly vivid, with neons and vibrating colors that create a push and pull with the foreground and background; other times the paintings are entirely about clever nuances within the surface textures, glossiness, and composition.

Listed under: Review

Tagged as: Chicago, Geoffrey Todd Smith, Josh Reames, Looker, Western Exhibitions

December 02, 2011, 8:15am

Ryan Travis Christian at Western Exhibitions

I’ve never seen anyone successfully treat a pencil as a painting tool the way Ryan Travis Christian does. In his current show, entitled River Rats, at Western Exhibitions is a large array of his recent drawings of technically proficient geometric explosions, early 20^th century-style cartoon characters, drug references, and op-art patterns that fluctuate between being graphic and expressionistic. The space in the drawings is both converging and exploding simultaneously. The work itself seems mischievous, the product of a recurring theme of a self-referential suburban upbringing and the tomfoolery that accompanies the banality of growing up in the ‘burbs.

Listed under: Chicago, Review

Tagged as: Eddie Martinez, Geoffrey Todd Smith, Josh Reames, Matthew Palladino, Ryan Travis Christian, Western Exhibitions

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Geoffrey Todd Smith