Tales of the Unexpected—Tyler K. Smith at the Lighthouse ArtCenter and Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary art fair

Tales of the Unexpected comic book cover

By Bruce Helander March 26, 2025

The recent solo exhibition of works by multidisciplinary artist Tyler K. Smith at the Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta, Florida was a stunning presentation with a cast of two- and three-dimensional abstracted futuristic and often comical characters (see “The Hulk” comic book series) that displayed interlocking forms along with exquisite ambitious large-scale drawings and ambulatory-like sculptures. The show spotlights Smith’s imaginative Bombotz universe of science fiction-oriented machines and fantastical characters including graphite drawings, painted ceramics and behind-the-scenes sketchbooks and models that showcase Smith’s creative process. The works also were presented by the Lighthouse ArtCenter in a special exhibition at the recent Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary art fair, which was held at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach and is in its eighth edition of featuring internationally renowned contemporary art as well as innovative and classic artworks.

Installation, Tyler K. Smith at Lighthouse ArtCenter.

The illustrative works at the Lighthouse ArtCenter portray hand-built interpretive and innovative cartoon-like fantasy sculptural ‘machines’ that seem to revel in sci-fi technology and may take their motivation partly from vintage comic book covers that illustrate a fanciful collection of colorful characters. Smith obviously has a special knack for piling up painted clay-like totems of various sizes with bits and pieces of abstracted metal-like body parts and mechanical appendages that celebrate serious fun. His ambitious and amazingly complex black and white graphite drawings—perhaps influenced by spaceship parts or an airplane’s landing gear—are often eight feet in height and demonstrate a mastery of drawing (the artist is a former drawing professor at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design).  

While viewing his work, comic book cover titles from the 1950s come to mind, such as “Monsters on the Prowl,” “The Creature,” “Creepy Worlds” and “Weird Wonder Tales,” which all offer a mysterious clue to Tyler Smith’s often humorous inspiration derived from pop culture, accented with an amazing hand-drawn abstracted mechanical shapes palette. The explosion in popularity of science fiction and the dominance of television over movies and radio became primary mediums of mass popular culture, which also was incorporated by other major artists including Takashi Murakami, Kenny Scharf and Julian Opie. Brian Donnelly, widely recognized by his moniker KAWS, has emerged as a leading contemporary force in the realm of cartoon pop art. Smith’s constructivist configurations commemorate the inventive history of these artists who have a keen eye for inventive pop style.

SKIDMARK, 2012, Graphite on Luan, 68 x 48 inches

Roy Lichtenstein, often hailed as a pioneer of incorporating amusing pop art into his compositions, revolutionized the art world by reimagining comic book imagery as high art and making the enlarged Ben-Day dot (which is how the color gray was created in early cartoon strips) his signature ingredient. Lichtenstein’s relationship with comic pop art was epitomized by his iconic pieces “Whaam!” and “Drowning Girl,” which transformed simple scenes from comics into powerful narratives that coupled emotional depth with a quirky aesthetic. Pop artist James Rosenquist, who started his career as a professional billboard painter, often used cartoon-like advertising imagery in his work. He rose quickly during the pop art movement with other colleagues utilizing comic strip imagery, such as R. Crumb, Andy Warhol, Eduardo Paolozzi, Larry Rivers, Ray Johnson, Allen Jones and certainly Peter Blake, the English pop artist who also designed the cartoon-like collaged cover of the Beatles’ album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Accordingly, Tyler Smith has joined this fraternity, which is linked to abstracted appropriation.

FINKBOTZ, 2012, Graphite on Luan, 68 x 48 inches

Lighthouse ArtCenter Curator Anthony Record managed to place an amazing menagerie of three-dimensional forms in this memorable show, which while often seeming robotic and frozen in time, still fit appropriately into the illusionary context of stop action, motion, speed and animated gestures. Some of Smith’s complex drawings seemed to be jumping off the wall as if you were watching a 3-D movie with blue and red paper glasses at an outdoor drive-in. “EYECLAW,” an exquisite work on paper loaned to the show by former Metallica rocker and painter Jason Newsted, is a great example of a talented artist who can mix and match fantasy with reality while creating a convincing graphite drawing that also has a built-in illusion of a three-dimensional form.

Almost all ambitious contemporary sculpture, regardless of scale, begins with preliminary drawing studies, whether it is Jeff Koons’ gigantic “Puppy” made of hundreds of real flowers or Henry Moore’s outdoor cast bronze abstracted sculpture. Tyler Smith takes a cue and stimulus from his large-scale drawings and has found an inventive and convincing method of transforming his images that seemingly jump off the page into a balancing act of tabletop sculptures or massive forms made of glazed ceramics or painted surfaces. At first glance, a viewer would assume that the constructions are welded metal and joined with bolts. But viewer beware, as the seemingly impenetrable figures coming at you are carefully painted pieces of cardboard and wood camouflaged with layers of acrylic paints and India ink. The artist also successfully creates similar forms on a smaller table-top scale that are glazed ceramic and successfully carry the same exciting aesthetic aroma as the larger sculptures. The exhibition also featured ten-foot-tall robot-like figures with gears and wheels straight out of central casting that rise above visitors and at the same time emulated the surrounding figure studies on the gallery’s walls.

STILTHEAD BOTZ, 2024, Cardboard, wood, acrylic, and ink, 130 x 84 x 50 inches

It’s important to note an impressive connection between Smith’s conceptional drawings and his remarkable ability to imaginatively transform them into towering sculptures that possess a similar visual vigor and aesthetic energy. The artist’s meticulous graphite drawings also produce infinite dark backgrounds for a provocative universe that creates a stage for fanciful flying objects, often accented in white, which seem destined to glow in the dark. The work titled “WINGNUT” (2013, graphite on Luan, 96 x 48 in.), has elements which could be described as space age remnants as they seem to fly into a perpetual orbit. Also, upon closer inspection of this work on paper, a pair of upside down naked lower limbs, covered by a metal jockstrap of sorts, comes into view with an extension only a robot could appreciate. Some other paintings on view, such as “BEEBOTZ,” is a colorful departure from his black and white drawings. In this work the background is a saturated robin’s egg blue sky where bumble bees glide in formation with a fiery exhaust and seem to be gradually losing their extremities during flight while retaining their armor for protection.

WINGNUT, 2013, Graphite on Luan, 96 x 48 inches

Smith was in good company at the fair as other artists exhibited there include Alex Katz, Andy Warhol, Shepard Fairey, Jesús Rafael Soto and Pablo Picasso, as well as sculpture by Botero, presented by a group of internationally respected galleries from the US, Spain, the UK, France and Switzerland, among others. Highlights from the fair included a monumental sculpture by Jason Myers at Long-Sharp Gallery; Priveekollektie Contemporary Art|Design showed innovative artist David Dessens and ceramics by Boris van Berkum; London’s Blond Contemporary presented a compelling dialogue between contemporary greats and young artists such as David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Henry Blond and Sophia Bounou; Raphael (Frankfurt) showed a canvas by Andy Warhol, an Alexander Calder watercolor and the latest edition screen print by Alex Katz; Palm Beach’s Contessa Gallery exhibited works by post-conceptual artist Rob Pruitt on the theme of climate change; and Holden Luntz Gallery (Palm Beach) presented a special exhibition of a series of photographs that capture beautiful wildlife, landscapes and human storytelling by David Yarrow, who also gave a talk titled “The Journey Never Ends.” WM

For more information on the fair: https://www.artpbfair.com/home and the Lighthouse ArtCenter: https://lighthousearts.org/tyler-k-smith-brainz-n-boltz/