Genetics of Humanity: X meets Y Painting

In contrast to the Old Masters who skinned humans down to the literal bone, Madelin Adena Smith (MAS) tells visual stories that skin humans down to their humanity, reality down to the real. Part biography, part social commentary, her works evoke not only the feelings of secrecy and exile that resulted from the near death experiences of her youth, but also a rare insight into the human condition those same experiences afforded her. Through the use of unorthodox techniques (such as suspending slow-drying oil paint beneath quick-drying acrylic or using turpentine as an eraser) she not only echoes themes of repression and the fragility of appearances, but also makes many of her pieces prone to change over time. Like a human, her art is imperfect. It has an unknown life span. “What is this obsession with correctness and permanence?” she asks. “You’d think we were uncomfortable with our own humanness, our mortality. And we are.” ​ Through this lens, no matter the medium, she examines a world that feigns, even idolizes numbness and compartmentalization. Blocks of colors become muzzles. Bright facial expressions mismatch dark scenes. Figures dissolve into hazes they themselves consume. What shall it be: Denial or survival? Truth or decorum? In what ways do we bury ourselves alive with propriety? These are the questions Smith asks of us, using aesthetics to confront its often forgotten antonym: anaesthesia-- an artificially-induced insensitivity to feeling. ​ A self-taught artist, she is based in Los Angeles and currently working on a new series called 'Illusions, Delusions'.