Samantha Keely Smith's
paintings are radiant with pulsating fiery potency. Yet they present a
disquieting chilly vision of a world that is no longer welcoming for
humans. The New York-based artist's magnificent
semi-abstract landscapes keep to a strictly limited palette of
predominantly complementary colors. Its compelling contrasts
nonetheless create a sense of total harmony which captures our
imagination by
creating the arresting aura of a world full and fulfilled without the presence of any extraneous life-forms.
As critic Benjamin Tischer wrote in 2003, "The paintings of Samantha Keely Smith draw heavily on [images]... of the safe place of the supernatural, where dreams and visions are made concrete and whole... exuding otherworldly power and emotion. It's strong stuff, heady and exhausting, as Smith is the first to admit...The result is a sort of fantastical abstract genre that looks and feels ageless, simultaneously very old and new."
Smith's work appears like the hopeful dream of the planet itself for a nice, peaceful, post-human future when the earth can create drama and beauty utterly on its own terms.
To see more of her work registered on Saatchi Online click here.
Ana Finel Honigman
ANA FINEL HONIGMAN is a critic, PhD candidate in art history at Oxford
University and Senior London Correspondent for the Saatchi Gallery's
online magazine. She is Style.com's Arts correspondent, Arts Editor of Alef, a Berlin correspondent for asmallworld.net
and contributes regularly to such publications as Artforum.com, Art in
America,TANK, Dazed & Confused, Sleek and British Vogue.
