Jamaican-born photographic print artist Paul Anthony Smith got to talk about the role of young, black artists in America’s current climate in an article in the current issue of Architecture Digest.
He told the magazine: “As artists we must be engaged in our communities. We must listen and observe the pain of today’s society and transform this energy into positive action, unlike the political rhetoric we’ve been fed.”
Smith creates images that have been abstracted through a technique called picotage, creating patterns that disguise the figures into becoming anonymous and representative of multitudes of people. He says he hopes to leave viewers agitated, perplexed and grateful to be alive.