June 6 - July 19, 2008

Casey Jex Smith: New Work

Pictures are an efficient and effective method of educating and indoctrinating. Belief systems such as faith-based traditions have always used visual language to disseminate their message, -- frescoes, paintings, sculpture and mosaics fill churches, government buildings, temples, chapels, schools, mosques and shrines both ancient and modern.

So where are the mystical visions in today's contemporary art practice? Contemporary art is aggressively secular, and sincere expressions of spirituality are marginalized, or overtly cynical.

Casey Jex Smith's drawings and paintings reject the institutionalized irony of 21st century visual expression, and instead look to incorporate personal spiritual traditions. Here is a vocabulary familiar in its shape, yet refreshingly new in its intent.


Water, 2007, mixed media on paper, triptych overall dimensions 50" x 114"