Some artists just seem to have something special. An ability that means that everything they make fizzes with some strange alchemy. Although this isn’t much of an exhibition, it’s enough to see that Michael E. Smith has it.
The exhibition text proudly claims this to be his first exhibition devoted entirely to works on paper, but they’ve included a few sculptures – a blue Adidas shoe box, filled with builder’s foam, like a perfectly baked commodified loaf. A milk carton, similarly insulated, with shiny metal foil stretched across it – reflecting your inexpressible sorrow over the relentless churn of mass production.
The wall works have a fascinating messed-upness, charged with suggestion and alive with unformed impressions. Some of them look dirty, as if the gallerists just peeled them off the studio floor. There is an entire wall of metallic looking cut outs that could be faces, or maybe cleavages. Made of cardboard they were meant to be clumped together (probably still should).
A lot of the works – most about 10 years old – are loose, frothy and greyish black – you can see he’s pressed down other images onto them, as though printing with asphalt. Many appear unfinished, their dabs and scratches like works from a Rorschach test, a challenge to your own psychological. Text is there, but you can never find the right position to read it. This slacker art drips into spaces, flowing disinterestingly but energetically, and always leaving room for associative connections.
- KOW, Kurfürstenstr. 145, Schöneberg, open through Apr 12, details.
