Hope Print

Contemporary American artist Smittybones combines portraiture and pop culture iconography with hyperrealist details in his original acrylic and mixed media paintings. He pairs his subjects with minimalist backgrounds, creating a dynamic relationship within the work. Years of traveling the world and discovering a myriad of diverse cultures and traditions inspired his work. As a former model, he fused his experience working with designers and photographers he takes cues from everyday visual culture. He dedicates himself to combining engaging ideas and at times playful whimsical propositions that reflect contemporary culture. He loves the intimate and complex side of compositions and spatial arrangements of subjects in which shapes and materials come to life thanks to light and color. “I want the detail of my artwork to entice the viewer in and present the subject in a medium closeup shot, highlighting the eyes and the way the light hits the person’s face. I like to fuse my hyperrealist technique with a subtle veil of surrealism and mystery…whether that is the gaze of a figure or the reflection from a still object.” Smittybones' paintings evolve towards a universe where the shapes, the lines, the colors, and the composition of the motives lead to the mystery of the true creation: to see the invisible and to say the unspeakable, to show to hide, to detail to suggest, to allow a composition to mean something other than what we see. Smittybones graduated from Savannah College of Art & Design obtaining a B.F.A. in Production Design and Art History. He now resides in Hollywood, California, and has exhibited at art galleries in Los Angeles since 2020. His artwork has been collected by Paris & Kathy Hilton and Issa Rae and is held in private collections around the United States, France, and China.