My goal is to create work that grabs attention and interest at first sight and rewards repeated, thoughtful viewing.
When you say to yourself, “What is it?” — That’s when you’re starting to know something new. There are cells in your brain that specialize in dealing with unaccustomed perceptions. I’m trying to light a candle under those cells. I’m rendering the familiar into the unfamiliar. This viewpoint is one in which different aspects of a setting are visible at once, from a perspective that could only be obtained by crumpling, slicing and folding our three-dimensional world. By bringing together multiple images and shapes, I’m creating/revealing extra information about a single setting that results from connections across widely differing directions and scales.
I’m portraying rifts in space, time and point-of-view – looking at a setting from multiple perspectives simultaneously. Showing imagined lines of force and revealing unseen intersections and influences.
The cubists would view an object from a closely grouped collection of physical and temporal perspectives. What I’m doing enlarges on that concept of mixed perspectives by widening the range and focus. Not multiple views a few paces apart, but multiple views in widely differing directions and scales.
When you look at infrared or ultraviolet imagery you see objects encoded with information that a “normal” view does not reveal. By bringing together multiple images and shapes, I’m creating/revealing extra information and constructing imagined connections.
Here for your listening pleasure is an interview I did with Yael Ksander on WFIU radio.
Art Résumé
October 2021
Praxis Gallery — Juried group show “After Dark”
June 2020
Exhibiting as part of the annual Bloomington Open Studios Tour. Paul is one of the founding artists.
September 2019
Chosen as one of 6 artist for 7’x12′ murals in the new IU Health Bloomington Hospital, Bloomington, IN
November 2018
2-person show at Thomas Gallery, Bloomington, IN
June 2017
Group show at the Indianapolis Art Center
June 2015
Group show at iFell Gallery, Bloomington, IN
April 2015
Solo show at Bloomingfoods 3 locations, Bloomington, IN
February 2015
Juried “Art of Chocolate” group show, People’s Choice Award
April 2013
Solo show at Blue Studio Gallery, Bloomington, IN
May, 2012
Group show at Blueline Gallery, Bloomington, IN
October, 2011
“Ghosts of Foreclosure” solo exhibition of photo remixes of empty foreclosed homes at El Norteño Gallery, Bloomington, IN
July, 2011
“What Am I Looking At” solo exhibition of photo remixes at John Waldron Arts Center, Rosemary P. Miller Gallery, Bloomington, IN
May, 2011
“Monsters” group show at Paper Crane Gallery, Bloomington, IN
February, 2011
Juried “Art of Chocolate” exhibition at IU Fine Arts Gallery, awarded 2nd place in the 2D category
2008 – 2011
Variety of live action and animated shorts including: On Determinism, On Candy, On Self Image, Sussing the Unseen Dog, On Memory, and There’s This Note I Really Like
August, 2007+2009
Exhibited photo remixes at Indy Fringe, Indianapolis – awarded “Best of Fringe” in 2007
April, 2003
Exhibition at Bloomington Area Arts Council of photo remixes, each with a borrowable CDs (pioneering the idea of shareware art)
2003
Completion of Cyclotron Trilogy – three art website portraits of the Indiana University Cyclotron
2003
Quirky/artsy video documentary Minor Rapture (about a basketball riot)
2000
Quirky/artsy video documentary The Urge to Destroy (about a demolition derby)
1998-2003
Five internet Sites Without Words visual art websites (accessed through PaulSmedberg.com)
1996 to present
Publication of an online art and philosophy e-zine BracketBracket. Converted to blog in February, 2009
1995
Group show at DaisyBrain Gallery, Bloomington, Indiana
1995
Publication of The Cauldron my first art website
1990s
Exhibition of video art piece Running Down the Rockies at Waldron Arts Center Gallery and video art pieces Ten Ideas That Will Revolutionize Civilization and Judgment Day at SOFA (School of Fine Arts) Gallery at IU, both in Bloomington, Indiana.