Joel Izak Smith

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

Joel Izak Smiths artistic practice reveres the enduring, while highlighting the inevitable degradation of found, fine, and repurposed materials. Through surface treatment, Smith explores how objects like people carry the wear of time, creating layers of meaning that seek, but often fail to translate one another . With an intentional anonymity, he mirrors the societal pressure to preserve the fragility of youth while grappling with the loss of innocence that arrives too early. Joel Smiths process of layering reflects the emotional scars left from your childhood, creating a different response to the world in adulthood. These are the narratives that speak through his use of materials and colour palettes, echoing the tension between protection and exposure, beauty and decay. In the work Smith reflects the discourse of human behavior in the age of digital identity ; how we hoard personas, treat surroundings or others in them, project meaning, and the ever slipping grasp for individuality. Society pushes us to attach significance even where none is intended, a compulsion He explores through the imperfect human traces left in his work. These traces are both deliberate and accidental, exposing the beauty of human error and its touch as we lose ourselves in objects once meant to comfort like phones, teddy bears, and other symbols of innocence that are now inadequate. By using ready-made objects as brushes, stamps, and tools, Smith reverbs the disposable nature of consumerism,...

Artwork