P·P·O·W Gallery is pleased to announce our second solo exhibition of Bill Smith’s works, Intuitive Visualization of the Unseen. This new body of work continues Smith’s investigation of natural systems of order and how they are translated into sculptural form.

The viewer enters a partitioned space that oscillates between lightness and darkness revealing sculptures that emit their own light. Smith works with a wide variety of materials, many that can be found in industrial supply stores. There is also a video installation room where a projection is playing on a floating sculpture, entitled Loop Web.

Smith’s sculptures express a dichotomic search that he tries to translate in his works. The delicacy and intricacy of the sculptures are formulated by observing nature. The method of construction emulates nature and like nature has no concept of good, evil, beauty or ugliness. This idea references Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil in application to the aesthetics in nature. Smith notes that “All terrestrial behavioral events and physical components, however bland, sweet or ghastly, conform to the same rules of mechanical beauty”. By employing the unbiased rules of science, the works take the complexities of nature, including human behavior, and translates them into a nonjudgmental interpretation of our collective ecologies.

Bill Smith holds a BS in Science, a MFA in sculpture and a technical degree in Diesel Mechanics. His work has been exhibited at: The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago; White Flag Projects, St. Louis; The Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis; the 5th Biennale de Montreal, Canada and most recently at The St. Louis Art Museum, St Louis. He is currently working on a project for the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia.