Philip Smith was born in 1952 in Miami, FL.

Smith is known for establishing the movement that became known as The Pictures Generation with a seminal exhibition in 1977. Along with other emerging artists—Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, and Robert Longo—Smith was turning away from Minimalism and Conceptualism to reprioritize the power of image-making. ‘Pictures’ was an apt way to describe their images, which were predominantly inspired by, or culled from newspapers, advertisements, film and television and that were increasingly becoming the signifiers of reality. The Pictures Generation also now includes Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Laurie Simmons and many others.

Since Smith began creating art, he has taken thousands of photographs of images ranging from old magic manuals and physics books, to medical literature, menus and advertisements. Often these photographic negatives served as image sources for his paintings over the years, acquiring thick patinas of paint just by being in the studio. Smith recognized the 35mm negatives as photographic works in themselves, had them scanned, and printed them. As a result of the paint, scratches, and cracks that have accumulated on the negatives, the computer assigned random, vibrant psychedelic colors at the screen – misreading the surface depth of the negatives. The accidental results are printed as is.

Smith first moved to NYC from Florida as a young artist, working as a writer for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, and going on to become managing editor of GQ. His unusual life story has been captured in his memoir, Walking Through Walls, published by Simon and Schuster—the true story of growing up with a father who discovers that he has supernatural powers. Showtime has acquired the book for a weekly television series, now in development.

His work has been included in both the Whitney and Beijing Biennial and is in the permanent collection of the Whitney, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Museum of Art, Miami Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Art, among others.