FINN SMITH

Finn Smith – “Untitled 2” – India ink, graphite, chalk, and acrylic on white and black paper, 60″ x 31″

STATEMENT:

I make drawings and prints about various forms of sameness and difference: absence and presence, distance and closeness, there and not there. In my work I find myself primarily grappling with the way each of these things can be found in the other, and the inherent multiplicity and contradiction that exists in any moment, feeling, or experience. A question that is at the forefront of my thinking is: how can I distort a moment to make it more real? This question underpins my interest in twoness and contradiction, my exploration of looking at the same object or moment from multiple perspectives, and my habit of combining different visual languages and forms of rendering.

A lot of the subject matter in my work comes from an interest in simplicity and the way simple, everyday moments or experiences can fill up with complexity and meaning if close enough attention is paid to them. This often manifests in a use of repetition– what does it mean to experience the same thing twice, and for those experiences to feel both the same and different? I enjoy using repetition as a way to call attention to the multiplicity in seemingly simple, straightforward moments. Simple things are both simple and not so simple, and their simplicity is itself the source of their richness and complexity.

BIO: 

Finn is from Easton, Pennsylvania and is graduating from Vassar this spring. They like to draw, ride their bike, and play traditional music with friends.