The limited edition American Gothic by Nick Smith was created for his solo exhibition titled Pioneers at the Rhodes Contemporary gallery in 2020. This piece follows the trail of the four collages Smith presented in the same exhibition, each featuring increasingly intricate variations of Grant Wood's famous American Gothic, an iconic painting depicting a pair of American farmers standing in front of their house.
Smith takes the style and composition of American Gothic as a base but reinterprets it through his characteristic use of pantones and collage, combining vibrant colors and fragments that alter the perception of the original image. This contemporary approach updates the painting, preserving its essence while giving it a visual twist that reflects Smith’s own artistic language.
In terms of technical features, American Gothic is created using the Giclée technique with screen-printed varnish on 310gsm Canson Rag Photographique paper. This combination of high-quality digital printing with screen printing gives the work a rich visual texture that invites the viewer to engage both from a distance and up close. The edition is limited to 50 copies, adding an element of exclusivity.
In this series, Smith not only pays homage to the original painting but also challenges and reinterprets it, exploring the visual language and the emotions evoked by the image's elements. Additionally, he incorporates words and phrases, a hallmark of his work, which add an extra layer of reflection on popular culture, art, and cultural icons.
The Pioneers series, and this work in particular, demonstrate how Nick Smith has evolved his style to integrate both abstraction and manipulation of color and form while remaining true to the influences of modern and pop art. His approach allows American Gothic to be both a contemporary reinterpretation and a profound reflection on American culture and its representation through art.
