Light + Shadow Works by Phillip K. Smith

Widely known for ‘Lucid Stead’ a glowing, mirrored cabin installation in the Joshua Tree Desert from 2013, American artist Phillip K. Smith III is back withLight + Shadow Works at Royale Projects Contemporary Art space in Los Angeles, an amazing new body of work consisting of a series of sculptural works that explore the minimalist and soft interplay of ambient light and shadow.
The white sculptural shapes, made of carbon fiber, range from simple and pure geometrical shapes such as circle, to asymmetrical bent and curves shapes to create their visual impact ans challenge our perception of room and space, or as put by the artist himself “These works are about the subtlety of light across a surface…about tracing the shift, the step, the gradient of light that is contained and revealed within these forms. They are about presenting light in its most reduced state.”

From the press release:
Highlights of the exhibition include a subset of the Light + Shadow series called Faceted Discs. The Discs utilize the same formal tenets of the Light + Shadow works, with what art writer Jan Tumlir describes as “bear[ing] a unique topography of striating lines and folded, tilting planes, the entirety of it coated a consistent monochrome white, resolutely matte and opaque.” Tumlir goes on to articulate that “the Faceted Discs insistently remind us of this: in their alternation between sameness and difference, they allow us to see the eyes’ inherent limitations as well as the excess of what they produce on their own. Facets disappear and again reappear, and in the process perhaps remind us of sand dunes, leveling out when the sun is directly overhead and then regaining dimension as it continues its course across the sky.”

Phillip K Smith III: Light + Shadow Works will be on view through January 23 at 432 S. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

All images © Lance Gerber