MEL SMOTHERS

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I’m placing objects from climate change events on top of a mass consumerism box. I have been bringing wood and other found objects, charred from recent fires from the west, or tossed in a Hurricane along the Florida coast, into a conversation with art history and climate change denial.

The subjects are inherited with the times, drawn from personal narratives and sources that span art history while reflecting my interest in philosophy and contemporary thought.

BIO

Mel Smothers is an American contemporary artist born in the west coast of the USA in 1947. Smothers evolved as an artist in Pop Art America during the 60's and 70’s, working alongside his contemporary Andy Warhol and Wayne Thiebaud. Thiebaud would later become Smothers’ University professor and a forefront figure of American Pop Art. Smothers is well established in the USA with having held numerous exhibitions, featured in museums and gallery collections, participated in art fairs and art projects. His work has found its way to New York, London, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles as well as Brussels, Monaco, Singapore, Berlin.

Solo, group, public art commissions in NYC, Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco. He holds an MFA from the University of Idaho. In 2006 he was selected for NYC Cooper-Union’s “Emerging Artists of the Year,” exhibition. Today, Mel works in a hard-to-find studio along the East River in New York City.