Sei Solo — Sei Smith

Returning to his East Village roots, Sei Smith (born 1990) is the homecoming king in S M I L E R S’ first “solo” exhibition.

Outdoor paintings, you say? Oh, how they effervesce out here in the atmosphere!!!!

Sei is a great artist, I say.

He say: can I bring my friends?

I say… maybe?

Sei Smith and S M I L E R S began their collaboration with an idea from the artist to invoke an interactive element in both his contributions and by adding some TBD surprise satellite elements…

Below are his statements on the exhibition’s development and a concept he calls Art Watching:

The inspiration and conceptual framing for this exhibition is bird-watching, or in this case, Art Watching. All works will hang outside on walls, fire escapes, trees, and in various, intentionally unconventional places to view art. They can be found and identified using a guide, modeled after ornithology manuals. These guides include pictures of the pieces, information about them, and rough locations of where they can be found. The guide will also include a ‘field notes’ section where viewers can write their own thoughts on each piece.

For the viewer, the show begins by picking up one of these guides. Also, to enhance the experience, you can either bring your own binoculars or use a pair provided on-site. Once fully equipped, the viewer ventures out onto the roof and begins finding the artworks in whatever order one chooses, or discovers…

I have been making art that interacts with light for years, so having a show where all works can be outside, changing with the sun, is exciting. The show will look completely different every couple of hours and especially at night when the sun is replaced with artificial lighting.

Hopefully, the show captures the thrill of a treasure hunt and turns the viewing experience into an active and collaborative one through the ‘field notes’—or maybe turning to your friend and saying, “Oh, there it is! There behind that branch, you see the shiny pink in that fire escape?”

One of the goals of Sei Solo is to create an experience that is more than just visual. I think the moment when an artist finishes a piece, steps back, and views it for the first time is a special experience of an anticipated unknown coming into being. Hopefully, this curatorial structure will mirror that feeling for the viewer.