Josh Smith

Josh Smith (b. 1976) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Raised in Tennessee, Smith is widely recognised for his prolific and stylistically diverse practice that spans painting, printmaking, collage, sculpture, and ceramics. He first gained attention in the early 2000s with a series of paintings that featured his own name boldly scrawled across the canvas, exploring authorship and repetition. Since then, his motifs have evolved to include grim reapers, palm trees, fish, and gestural abstractions, often executed in raw, energetic brushwork and vivid colour.

Smith has exhibited extensively in major institutions, including solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA PS1) in New York and the Brant Foundation. His work is held in the permanent collections of notable institutions such as MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Centre Pompidou. While not heavily decorated with formal awards, he is widely respected in the contemporary art world for his conceptual rigour and relentless experimentation. Smith has a strong and liquid market, with consistent gallery representation (including David Zwirner) and frequent auction sales, often commanding high prices.