Chris Sharp Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Michael E. Smith for PST: Art and Science.

Upon first glance, the connection between art and science and the work of Michael E. Smith might not be so obvi-ous. After all, a fair amount of what Smith creates or depicts seem to be things breaking down, malfunctioning, and/ or betraying their own obsolescence. At the very least, he would seem to doubt that which underpins scientific devel-opment: the core enlightenment value of progress. He is demonstrably less interested in the latest breakthrough than what it leaves behind, its literal and psychic aftermath. In this way, he and what he creates brings to mind Walter Benjamin’s “Angel of History.” The oft-quoted description is worth citing in full:

“This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet.…