Installation views
Francis Smith uses color as a narrative tool. He vividly captures distinct environments. He shifts between interior/exterior and private/public spaces. He alternates between cool and warm colors along with saturated and muted tones. Neon spray paint, wood panel walls, hand-drawn signs and a lush museum setting serve as cultural signposts. These ingredients create frames of reference for the locations and its’ inhabitants. When contemplating his work, I think about how geography, history, socioeconomics and spatial relationships intersect.
-Text by Christine Callahan
Artist Bio
With his staunch New England work ethic, a tiny camper, a simple camera kit, Francis Smith has been documenting American life in our places called Columbia, a nickname of old for the United States since 2015.
Since 2003 Smith has been contributing photographer for four magazines—American Art Collector, American Fine Art, Western Art Collector, and Native American Art—covering a wide range of our nation’s visual media.
Growing up in Westport, Connecticut—then a thriving arts colony—Smith learned how creativity finds expression. And it is with gratitude (and pride) that he employs his Vassar College art history degree every day in his life and career.
Before hitting the road, Smith raised over $14,000 through a crowdfunding campaign, and while traveling he has secured local press and radio coverage in the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Florida, and Iowa.
www.francissmith.net