David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Josh Smith at the gallery’s 606 N Western Avenue location in Los Angeles. This marks Smith’s first solo show in Los Angeles.
For Destiny, Smith has made a series of paintings that continue his long-running dialogue with the grim reaper, a figure that has appeared in his work for years in countless guises. In these new canvases, the reaper is set loose in New York City, riding a bicycle through familiar streets, cutting past landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. The once faceless symbol of death now has eyes and stares back at you, tangled in the swirl of the city. It is funny, unsettling, and alive. For Destiny, Smith has made a series of paintings that continue his long-running dialogue with the grim reaper, a figure that has appeared in his work for years in countless guises. In these new canvases, the reaper is set loose in New York City, riding a bicycle through familiar streets, cutting past landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. The once faceless symbol of death now has eyes and stares back at you, tangled in the swirl of the city. It is funny, unsettling, and alive.
In these paintings, Smith takes the Grim Reaper—a recurring figure in his work—and places him on a bicycle, riding through the streets of New York. Set against the city’s skyline, the reapers weave through traffic, emerge from subway stations, and dart past the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Rather than anonymous symbols of death, these reapers are folded into the chaos of the city. They look back. Their cloaks, layered in slashes and ribbons of color—sometimes heavy in black, other times edged in blues, purples, neon greens, or acidic oranges—function as both costume and surface.
