Phillip K. Smith III brings 'Light and Change' to Palm Springs museum

Phillip K. Smith III creates large, vivid and illuminating sculptures combining architecture and painting. Many of his pieces incorporate the natural elements and light of the open-air desert, while others use electric components and LED lighting to produce vibrant aesthetics in a closed space.

The Palm Springs Art Museum is currently hosting a solo exhibition for the Palm Desert artist, "Phillip K Smith: Light + Change," on display through May 7. The exhibition presents a mixture of new and old work, from the first sculptures he ever made in 2004 with Douglas fir stakes and threaded rods known as the "Cylinder" series to new art created specifically for the showcase.

In addition to the solo exhibit, the museum is honoring Smith at its Art Party gala on Jan. 28. The annual fundraiser will be held at the museum, and individual tickets are still available for $1,000 each.

"Phillip is undoubtedly one of the top artists in our region, and it made sense to give him a large platform to show how much we believe in him and showcase the best of what our region produces," Executive Director Adam Lerner said. "His reputation and the quality of the work he's doing clearly indicates we need to present him at the museum and present him proudly."

Among the new work included in the exhibit is an LED color-choreographed wall and several pieces focused on geometric patterns.

"(Geometry) is about finding and using a universal language that all of us know, where you and I can speak plainly about circles, squares and triangles," Smith said. "We can speak plainly about the spectrum of colors, and light and shadow. There are all things we interact with daily, and for me, it's laying out a welcome mat for the viewer. It allows people into the work and then (lets them) discover what it means to them."

The advantage for Smith working in mediums such as aluminum, glass, LED lighting and other electrical components is the materials have their own "distinct properties." He compared his selection of materials to an artist using acrylic paint instead of oil paint for a sense of pace and blending different characteristics.

"As an architect, I have a deep respect for materiality. As an artist that's focused on light and change, I'm viewing those materials though a particular lens," Smith said.

The exhibition was planned for 2020 by former Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Louis Grachos and Chief Curator Rochelle Steiner and was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Grachos and Steiner resigned from the museum the following year, but Lerner, who has been executive director and chief executive officer since 2021, met with Smith and expanded the scale of the show.

Smith, who studied fine arts and architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, was an artist-in-residence at the museum in 2010 and served as president for five years on the museum's former Architecture and Design Council. He's currently on the Board of Trustees.

Lerner said he's "blown away" by the colorful and illuminated art in Smith's exhibition.

"I've given three tours and want to stay in there longer every time because it's so mesmerizing," Lerner said. "I've seen the renderings for about a year and nothing compares to what it's like to be in the space with those works."

As a local artist, Smith has combined his background in fine arts and architecture to present large-scale installations in open-air settings for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Desert X.

In 2016, he created the astonishing contemporary installation "Portals" for Coachella. The piece was arranged in a circle 85 feet in diameter with benches and a mesquite tree in the center surrounded by spaces featured pulsing, LED-powered concentric circles. His 2017 Desert X installation, "The Circle of Land and Sky," was placed on the corner of Portola Avenue and Frank Sinatra Drive in Palm Desert and featured another circle double in size and featured 300 mirror-polished poles placed 22 inches apart and angled at 10 degrees to reflect the sky and desert.

Although many desert dwellers probably know him for these outdoor installations, Smith is just as comfortable presenting his work in an indoor setting like the Palm Springs Art Museum. The exhibition doesn't feature any outside light sources, which sets the mood for the LED lighting installed inside his fiberglass, aluminum and glass art pieces.

"For me, the exciting part of working outdoors is the scale dramatically increases," Smith said. "The two installations I did at Coachella, or for Desert X operating within 180 acres of raw desert land building a reflective circle that's 165 feet in diameter, it's difficult to do things of that scale indoors. But this is a museum I've been coming to since I was in the first grade, and I know the space well."

During his residency, Smith designed his first internally lit and color-based installation known as "Aperture." The initial proposal specified it would be made of wood, be opaque and painted. But he changed his mind three weeks before the exhibition opened. The final result is a 7-foot-high, 24-foot-long, three-dimensional and colorful wall featuring nine geometrical forms

"I decided it couldn't be opaque, it couldn't be painted and needed to be translucent, internally lit and needed to change color," Smith said. "I don't know where that gut reaction came from, but I think it came from being in the desert and growing up here. That choice forever changed my work and respect for this desert.

"Me and Burzeen Contractor, who has worked with me at my studio for almost 20 years, showed up together with this idea that was only three weeks fresh of 'Let's make a translucent artwork that changes color.' When we showed up, we had about half of it figured out and then we figured out the other half while we were there. It was an amazing opportunity because we essentially moved the whole studio to the museum for eight weeks and focused on building one work, and that piece set up my trajectory for the next 10 years."

Since reopening last year after COVID-19, the museum has presented exhibitions by prominent contemporary artists such as Mexican artist Gonzalo Lebrija's "Miracle of the Eternal Present," Robert Longo's politically themed "Storm of Hope: Law & Disorder" and an artist-in-residency series titled "Outburst." In August, the institution will open "Eso es la vida/This is life: Graphic Design from Mexico" showcasing the posters, typography, signs and digital media of Mexico.

Smith said he's "incredibly excited" about the direction the museum is headed in under its current leadership.

"I've seen the museum change from the Palm Springs Desert Museum to the Palm Springs Art Museum, and I feel the desert itself is in a transition period," Smith said. "We have a really exciting injection of creativity at the institution under (Lerner). He's a year in, and is at the beginning of being able to showcase some of his ideas. I think people are already seeing a different demographic, a full gradient and true representation of the entire desert that is now actively attending and engaged with the museum. That's been a huge goal of ours."

What: "Phillip K Smith III: Light + Change"

When: Through Sunday, May 7

Where: Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 N. Museum Drive, Palm Springs

More information: psmuseum.org

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @bblueskye.