Paul Anthony Smith: Tarmac #4, 2013. Oil and spray paint on canvas, 72 by 96 inches. Courtesy Zierhersmith.
“Transience,” the solo debut of Jamaican-American painter Paul Anthony Smith, shows a great deal of promise. On view are several large oil-on-canvas works, plus a series of altered photographs. In the paintings, pairs and groups of Jamaican airport workers pause in their routines to engage in conversation or walk across the tarmac. With generalized features, and set against colorful monochrome backgrounds, Smith’s figures seem rather formal and austere in bearing. He imbues them with a sense of calm dignity, yet each composition conveys an almost palpable tension that is echoed in the uncanny photo images of scarred and masked figures.
