Crush by Adam Parker Smith

A thought-provoking exhibition that offers a new perspective on Greco-Roman and Renaissance sculptures.

Artist Adam Parker Smith uses humor in his work and often explores the legitimacy of ancient forms as well as the reverence classical art still evokes. His latest series follows the same path. Tongue in cheek and monumental, the Crush exhibition puts Greco-Roman and Renaissance sculptures in a new light. In a departure from his usual style, the artist created the sculptures in a colossal size of ten-square-foot or one square meter cubes. Crush marks the fifth exhibition of the artist at The Hole art gallery. Opened in the gallery’s new L.A. location, the show benefits from the size of the expansive hall with high ceilings. The six sculptures are both unusual and easily recognizable. Visitors can easily recognize well-known sculptures – Bernini’s David and Apollo Belvedere, for example – yet here the classical statues appear as though they have been put through a trash compactor.

Crush thus aims to provoke the viewer in challenging familiar attitudes to classical marble sculptures. Originally created as imitations of life, ancient statues became sources of admiration and reverence. The artist purposefully disrupts this narrative and presents these iconic sculptures as blocks that allow stacking, stocking, or shipping. To create the sculptures, the artist worked with master carvers, digital research teams and a seven-axis reductive robot. After rendering the original sculptures in 3D modeling programs, the artist then compressed them into cubic forms. The last stage required their painstaking re-creation from Carrara marble blocks. The use of the stone both gives a nod to the ancient works and reinforces the connection between their original form and the contemporary portrayal. The “Crush” sculpture exhibition opened on June 11 and runs until August 20, 2022. Photographs © Adam Parker Smith.