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Sandy Smith

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Sandy Smith
Sandy Smith (born 2 August 1983) is a Scottish visual artist based in New York
Sandy Smith
City. He is the younger brother of professional Rock Climber Malcolm Smith
and experimental psychologist Kenny Smith.
Contents
Biography
Major works and projects
References
External links
Biography
Smith during ‘Road Trip USA 08’
project.
Born
2 August 1983
Dunbar, Scotland
Nationality Scottish
exhibition in Glasgow was in 2006. Since this time Smith has exhibited widely
Known for Sculpture, Installation,
Video, Painting, Bookworks
in Scotland and Internationally, to some critical success in Denmark and the
Awards
Fulbright Scholarship,
New Work Scotland
Project, Dewar Arts
Award
Website
www.sandysmith.co.uk
(http://www.sandysmit
h.co.uk//)
Smith was born in the Scottish town of Dunbar, and later moved to Glasgow to
study Art at the Glasgow School of Art from 2001 to 2005. His first solo
USA.[1]
Major works and projects
"Pure Love", the title of Smith's first solo show in London in April 2009,
marked the romantic influence of the road trip project undertaken the previous
summer. A return to working individually, the exhibition showcased a new series
of abstract sculptural works executed in shagpile wool.
The tactile nature of these works was highlighted by a large lightbox's confession of "I want to hold you", although the inclusion
of a slowly revolving mirror in the centre of the space, precariously held at an angle, keeps the viewer aware of his/her own
physicality in relation to the sculptures.
"Road Trip USA" During August 2008, Smith undertook an collaborative
project with another Glasgow based artist, Alex Gross, which saw them create 3
solo exhibitions during a 9000 miles road trip around the western United States.
A project was organized by Smith and Gross, and funded by the Scottish Arts
Council and the British Council.
The trip was, in Sandy Smith's words, to be a "fast, flowing journey into
optimism, failure, modernism, landscape and tourism, as well as a jovial
examination of the artist's role in relation to these grand ideals".[2] The elevenweek trip resulted in three successful exhibitions in Seattle,[1] Las Vegas and
The first room of the installation "The
Object moved by its own Success", a
collaborative exhibition by Sandy
Smith & Alex Gross.
Utah,[3] and lead to the pair being awarded a New Work Scotland award at Edinburgh's Collective Gallery, where their final
collaborative exhibition was held in December 2008. This exhibition was also documented in Art Review.[4]
The four exhibitions, along with other works and tourist photographs from the journey, are shown in detail on Smith’s website.
"Junior: A monument in film making history" is the title of an essay commissioned by the artist from an academic essay
writing company. In May 2007, the essay was to prove that Junior is the best film ever made, and reference various philosophers
and thinkers such as Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud and Marc Augé amongst others. The
essay itself is available to download from a website Smith set up specifically to host this project, www.juniorbestfilmever.info.
The topic has also spurred a competition where the public is invited to submit their own take on why the film should be
considered the greatest ever made, with cash prizes available for the winning entries. In February 2008, despite Sunday Herald
covering the story,[5] the competition received fewer entries than there were prizes available, and the competition has been
‘infinitely extended’ according to Smith's website.
"All the time I was making this, I was thinking of you" was the title of Smith's solo exhibition, at Market Gallery, Glasgow. In
July 2007, this exhibition followed on from a four-week residency in the gallery space, where Smith spent his time making a
flowering forest from craft materials such as crepe paper, tissue paper, Papier-mâché and poster paint.
"Mauritian Sunset" was the final work in a series of installations using
redundant or discarded computers as building blocks to create architectural
features or follies. This series of works first brought Smith's artwork to
international attention, and was featured in magazine articles in the United
Kingdom[6] and Europe, and on German Television.
References
1. Hackett, Regina. European Duo’s road trip produces an elegiac
examination of the American West (http://www.seattlepi.com/visualar
t/375009_visual15.html), Seattle P-I, 15 August 2008. Retrieved 2
November 2009.
"Mauritian Sunset" exhibited in
Edinburgh's Embassy Gallery.
2. USA Road Trip 08 – Smith & Gross (http://www.sandysmith.co.uk/usa/index.html), Sandy Smith. Retrieved 2
November 2009.
3. Wichert, Geoff. The Object Moved by its own success (http://www.artistsofutah.org/15bytes/2008/10/the_object_
moved_by_its_own_success.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100924194932/http://artistsofutah.or
g/15bytes/2008/10/the_object_moved_by_its_own_success.html) 24 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine,
17 October 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
4. Clegg, James. "Art Pilgrimage: Glasgow & Edinburgh", Art Review, March, 2009.
5. McCracken, Edd. Arnie’s ‘one-joke’ movie made into work of art (http://www.heraldscotland.com/arnie-s-one-joke
-movie-made-into-work-of-art-1.828472), Sunday Herald, 24 February 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
6. Twenty/20: Sandy Smith, "MacUser", 13 May 2005.
External links
www.sandysmith.co.uk (http://www.sandysmith.co.uk/) – Artist's own website
www.juniorbestfilmever.com (https://web.archive.org/web/20100217185012/http://www.juniorbestfilmever.com/) –
Website for Junior competition started by Smith
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sandy_Smith&oldid=875287351"
This page was last edited on 25 December 2018, at 07:41 (UTC).
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