Ned Smyth will be showing new sculpture and drawings at Greene Contemporary from Saturday January 20 through Saturday February 24, 2007. A preview of the exhibition will be held Friday January 19 from 6 to 9 pm.
The exhibition will include a number of large graphite drawings on Mylar, as well as medium and small scale sculpture in bronze that Smyth has recently completed. The drawings and sculpture are inspired by rocks he has found on his many travels. The drawn shapes evolve as he works the graphite on the surface of the page. His manner of working on the Mylar endows his forms with an extraordinary presence of pleasing complexity and plasticity that belies their two dimensional state. Smyth's intuitive understanding of the formal issues of sculpture including: form, weight, density and scale results in drawn images having the characteristics of three dimensional works. Smyth's bronze sculpture resonates with reference to natural forms.
Smyth has been showing his work in New York since 1974. Holly Solomon represented him from 1976 to 1985. He has exhibited his work in many venues including: Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Gallery Bishofberger, Zurich, Switzerland; Nevada Institute of Contemporary Art, Las Vegas; University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, California; Grey Art Gallery, New York University; Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, Florida; Telfair Academy, Savannah, Georgia; American Craft Museum, New York; ICA at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati Ohio; The Biennale de Venezia, Italy; Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris; New Museum, New York; Cooper-Hewitt, New York, Louisiana Art Museum in Copenhagen and Salomon Contemporary in East Hampton, New York.
Smyth has completed site-specific and commissioned work for dozens of individuals, corporations and public art projects including: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Sculpture Garden, New York; GSA commission for the Federal Courthouse, Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, The Virgin Islands; Wave Hill, Riverdale, NY; Prudential Insurance Co., Corporate Headquarters, Thousand Oaks, CA; Veterans Administration Hospital, Gainsville, FL; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, Commissioned for "the Allegheny Landing Sculpture Park" by The Heinz Family; Fire Station, Bayside, Queens, NY; Anchorage Art Museum, Anchorage, Alaska; Battery Park City, NY, NY; Wilmington, Delaware, Christina Gateway Park and Amtrak Station; Five acre park, Fort Lauderdale, FL, collaboration with Barbara Neijna; Marine Biology Dept. University of Southern Florida, Saint Petersburg, FL; Victory Park, Long Beach, California.
Smyth was born in 1948 and moved to New York from Colorado when he was 23. He went to Soho upon arriving in New York having been offered a ride by Keith Sonnier in New Jersey as he was hitchhiking. He met Gordon Matta Clark with whom he became friends and began exhibiting. Clark was interested in the aesthetics of deconstructing the urban landscape and photographing the views from inside out in rooms he would cut up. Smyth who accompanied Clark on his excursions into abandoned buildings became interested in "adding narration, images and color to his architectural forms and spaces." Smyth lives and works on Shelter Island, NY.