The End is Near (Anamorphic) Painting

Artist Fletcher Smith will exhibit his series of 3-D paintings and anamorphic illusions in "Girls, Gurls, Grrls, and Other Objects of Desire" at the ECA+ Gallery from February 4 through February 25. The opening reception will take place on February 8, 5-8 p.m. during the 6th annual Fire & Ice Art Walk in Easthampton. The exhibition is free and open to the public. 3-D glasses will be provided. As a keen adherent of pop iconography and optical sleights, Smith repurposes personal photographs and found images from the internet"”a dating profile photo of woman kissing a freshly caught fish or a vacation pose near the Egyptian pyramids"”to infiltrate both the world ordinary intimacy and commercial exuberance. In his own words, Smith is "advancing Western Civilization, one painting at a time." Smith requires his viewers to don 3-D glasses or physically shift perspective to a precise location as a means to see a concealed and sometimes strikingly familiar image. Though influenced by Chuck Close, Ed Ruscha, and John Baldessari, Smith employs the centuries-old practices of perspectival and conical anamorphsis to create his bold, mutative works. In his perspectival anamorphic paintings, abstracted black and white lines cohere into clear, photographic forms such as a pair of hands casting an elephant-like shadow on the wall when viewed from the side. Other works rely on positioning a reflective billet aluminum cone in the center of a painted disc to achieve the illusion. Viewers looking directly at the tip of a cone might see a child holding an orange balloon or the command to Buy Now and Save emerge from a ring of cheerful amoebic shapes. Born in 1954 in Easthampton, MA, Smith is among the leading artists of his generation that have experimented with and incorporated anamorphic forms and devices into his narrative painting. After studying art at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and the Pratt Institute in New York, Smith acted as a gallerist and curator for a number of eminent institutions including the R.K. Parker Gallery, Gallerie Michael and Mayer-Schwarz Gallery. Smith's work can be found in myriad of public and private art collections both in the United States and abroad, and has been seen in numerous exhibitions worldwide. He currently lives and works in Western Massachusetts. The ECA+ Gallery is located in Easthampton's Old Town Hall at 43 Main Street, Easthampton, MA. The gallery is open Monday - Thursday and Saturday 12:00 p.m.