Whitehot Magazine, review by Jane Horowitz
October 1, 2025
Walking into David Zwirner's Los Angeles gallery to view Josh Smith's Destiny – made up of 21 works featuring the iconic image of the Grim Reaper – I was a bit anxious, prepared to be surrounded by bleakness, chaos, and all matters of darkness. After all, this is an exhibit featuring paintings of a demon racing around New York City by bike in the dead of night, often accompanied by a scythe, seemingly ready to strike down anyone who crosses his path.
A black cat lurks, fires blaze. The paintings' backdrops are places of transportation—bridges, subways, gas stations. The bikes aren't bright and shiny but well-worn and twisted. Here comes our destiny, alright: the apocalypse. But Smith's work took me somewhere else entirely. The bold colors, frenetic motion, and the Reaper's alternately grinning and nefarious expressions elicited something more akin to excitement — a rush at seeing how this archetypal figure has taken on new life as a roving bon vivant. The Grim Reaper, sometimes depicted faceless, wears his expressions happily. And the paintings are big, many 5 x 5 feet, thick with paint and expressive strokes. You can see Smith's craft with every drip of paint. Read more