Matt Smoak
Raised in Tokyo and Washington, DC
Matt Smoak is a painter and bricoleur. He creates paintings, performances, and installations using a range of everyday materials: mirrors, toast, furniture, and just-used sandwich wrappers. Referencing queer histories, biracial space-time relations, and perception as a primary source for inquiry, he re-envisions notions of the constructed self—calling viewers to bear witness and perform vision beyond normative intellectual paradigms.
Incarnations, 2022. Mirrors, silver plates, table, bread; 45 inches x 47 inches x 140 inches. Photo: Miraj Patel.
Installation view at Yale School of Art, 2022. Photo: Miraj Patel.
Installation view, post-unfolding performance, at Yale School of Art, 2022. Photo: Miraj Patel.
Reflection, 2021. Oil on board; 16 inches x 20 inches. Repaired mirror, sawdust, rope, chair; 36 inches x 72 inches. Photo: Miraj Patel.
Reflection (detail), 2021. Oil on board; 16 inches x 20 inches. Photo: Allison Minto.
Not Who, Not Where, But What III, II, I, 2022. Oil on wood panel, three panels; 16 inches x 20 inches each. Photo: Merik Goma.
No Who, Not Where, But What III, 2022. Oil on wood panel; 16 inches x 20 inches. Photo: Matt Smoak.
Incarnations (detail), 2022. Mirrors, silver plates, table, oil on toast in drawer. Photo: Merik Goma.
The flâneur, the loafer, 2022. Oil on toasts; 5 inches x 5 inches x 140 inches. Photo: Matt Smoak.
Video stills of Unfolding Performance II, with Folded Piece II, 2022. Foils, reflective papers, tape, one-minute duration. Video: Bhasha Chakrabarti & Alex Puz.