Bio

From her studio in Indianapolis, Taylor Smith creates work that focuses on technology, popular culture and consumerism. Drawing on her interest and training in art history and film photography, Smith redeems technologies and imagery that have been left behind. She creates work that focuses on the possibility of “reimagined life within everyday things.”

Her artistic roots run deep. Her mother was an artist who attended the first Andy Warhol show at the Ferus Gallery in 1962 in Los Angeles and passed up a chance to purchase an original Campbell's Soup Can painting for $100, which to this day brings consternation and deep longing for what could have been. Smith lived and worked in Germany for many years, attending art school in both Nurnberg and Berlin. Smith was present with fellow students to assist in the base layer prep and painting for Keith Haring’s famous mural on the Berlin Wall in 1986, later celebrating with Haring and members of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. These early experiences have been foundational influences in her reinterpretations of 20th Century pop art.

Smith currently explores imagery and objects with a focus on consumerism, nostalgia and art history. She reinterprets familiar pop art icons, speaking to the fleeting nature of technology, people and our natural resources. Smith works within the vein of appropriation with the intent of recontextualizing evocative and well-known imagery to then create a new message. From the surface, the viewer sees familiarity and beauty in Smith’s work - bright colors, pastels, a vibrant candy-like aesthetic, but upon closer inspection, the viewer experiences layered and more meaningful themes. Using a wide variety of materials and mediums including discarded computer disk drives, commercial packaging and found scraps of street advertising, Smith blends the practice of screen printing, painting and collage.

Smith's works are not merely paintings, but portals to memory, where echoes of yesterday resonate through technology, bold colors and dynamic textures. Smith expertly weaves together fragments of time from the past, drawing inspiration from technological advances, familiar portraits, and art history that have shaped our collective experience.

Smith has exhibited internationally in Europe and North America. She has works in many high profile collections, including the Eli Lilly permanent collection, the Madeleine Albright collection, the Cleve Carney Museum of Art and many others.