Interview by Chris Cotonou
2025
"Are you the reaper?” It’s a question the artist Josh Smith is ready to contend with at his current show with David Zwirner in Los Angeles, a series of colourful paintings that portray the grim reaper cycling around New York.
It’s not an obscure question. Smith, who was born into a military family in Okinawa, Japan and raised in Tennessee before moving to New York, is known to be autobiographical with his work. He first came to the art world’s attention through a landmark– now iconic – series of paintings depicting his own name in abstract forms: JOSH SMITH emblazoned on canvases. Later, he grew to fame for his use of motifs and vibrant compositions, crafting a Josh Smith cosmos. For much of his career it was freeing, he says, to just impose himself. Now, he’s attempting something new: to step back and let the audience “take part in the conversation,” he explains.