Southern California artist Phillip K. Smith III creates experiential art that highlights changes in perception as related to light, color, time, and space. Using reflection, varying translucency, and shifting color, the artist’s interior installations provide richly hued environments that respond to the spatial and atmospheric conditions. As with other artists of the Light and Space movement, Smith transforms spaces to expand the sensorial experience of viewers. This exhibition presents a new large-scale, site-specific work that incorporates Smith’s precisely paced program of changing colors.

The exhibition Three Parallels is the seventh in the SMoCA series Architecture + Art, which has commissioned architects and artists over the past 10 years to create site-specific installations that respond to the spatial, environmental, and social context of the Museum. The series pushes forward the increasingly important area of creative activity that lies between architecture and art.

As a trained architect and practicing artist, Smith is well versed in both worlds. While his work is predominantly based in object-making, it also seamlessly incorporates the environment. Through an invisible use of technology, the gallery projects a future in which our lives have a more symbiotic relationship with the digital realm. The programmed color changes quietly affect the viewer’s relationship to the surrounding architecture. In this new and evolving surrounding, visitors navigate around large mirrors that reflect and project infinite light and shadow.

Press

Phillip K. Smith III Shows His True Colors — Hyperallergic, Feb. 2, 2023

State of the Arts: Phillip K. Smith III — Modern Luxury (national), December 2022 / January 2023

SMoCA to Unveil Immersive Light Art Installation (Scottsdale Arts news release)