Phillip K. Smith III’s monumental installation Bent Parallel envelopes viewers in light, continuing the artist’s ongoing dialogue with color theory, optics, scale, and technology. Appearing as two intersecting color-field walls, the hinge-like structure merges surfaces to engender a perception of shifting and blending. It creates a third, material-less, zero-thickness plane that mixes the adjacent colors and seems to extend the physical bounds of the space. The resulting environment appears simultaneously infinite and finite.

Born in Los Angeles in 1972, Phillip K. Smith III received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design before returning to the Southern California desert where he was raised. Building upon explorations in the perception of light, color, and space, he creates intensely physical and seemingly ephemeral sculptures. His large-scale, temporary installations include the internationally renowned Lucid Stead (2013) in Joshua Tree, California, and Reflection Field (2014) and Portals (2016), both of which debuted at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Smith has been featured in major solo and group exhibitions. His monumental works are sited throughout California and at venues beyond, including Boston, Kansas City, Nashville, and Oklahoma City. Recently he has been commissioned to create permanent, light-based works for the City of West Hollywood and the City of Bellevue, Washington. Next year, he will participate in Desert X 2017, an international contemporary art exhibition that focuses on environmental, social, and cultural conditions of the 21st century. The artist and his works have been featured in numerous online and print publications, including Art in America, Architectural Digest, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Chris Van Ueffelen’s book 500 x Art in Public, and Henry M. Sayre’s textbook A World of Art.