MEL SMOTHERS

Artist Statement for the Exhibition  'Big Oil, Lost And Found', 2023

I'm placing objects from climate change, and humanitarian events on top of a mass consumerism box. I have been bringing wood and other found objects, charred from recent fires on the west coast, or salvaged from a Florida Keys refugee boat, into a conversation with art history, climate change denial, corporate environmental greed.

These subjects are inherited with the times and drawn from personal narratives and sources that span art history. They reflect my interest in philosophy and contemporary thought.

Statement for the Exhibition 'The Climes Are A Changin', 2022

Thanks for taking a closer look at my new project. It is Art about Art. It is also the next chapter in I Painted Over Andy Warhol began in 2006. Over those years I have considered the sculptural possibilities of the IPOAW project. I have now found an entry point using Brillo boxes as pedestals for classical figures created from found objects, at this moment I'm thinking beach wood. The originals can be cast or 3D printed as a series.

I do not believe I have ever seen anything like it. The title has evolved from "Standing on Andy Warhol" to "The Climes Are A Changin"

Mel Smothers

Mel Smothers current series of work is a return to sculpture invoking climate change and art history. Climate change has become real for him. He was first evacuated from The Florida Keys in 2016 for Hurricane Irma. And last year he was evacuated along 20,000 others in a day, the entire mountain city of South Lake Tahoe in California, when the Caldor Wildfire turned toward them. He combines art history with materials he collects from climatic change events.

He is an American contemporary artist born in the west coast of the USA in 1947. He evolved as an artist in the 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 the 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. Smothers has been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles as well as Brussels, Monaco, Singapore, Berlin. Solo, group, public art commissions in NYC, Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco. MFA University of Idaho.

In 2006 he was honored with selection by Cooper-Union to exhibit in the Emerging Artists of the Year Exhibition in New York City. Mel has a hard to find studio on the shore of Lake Tahoe.

The Climes Are A Changin

Sketches

The Climes Are A Changin 12 Watercolour, 33 x 23 cm (13"x9"), 2022	The Climes Are A Changin 013 Watercolour, 30 x 23 cm (12"x9"), 2022	The Climes Are A Changin 014 Watercolour, 30 x 23 cm (12"x9"), 2022

Standing On Andy Warhol, 152 x 30 x 30 cm (60” x 12” x 12"), Artist Proof #3. Found objects and wooden box. Edition of 10

E-mail: info@hayhillgallery.com