Nathaniel Kyung Smith

Overview
Nathaniel Kyung Smith
Nathaniel Kyung Smith (b. 1990) grew up in a rural part of Minnesota. He spent his summers exploring the many bodies of water and forests in the area, as well as performing chores around his parent’s flower shop. The vistas of Lake Superior were especially striking to him where volcanic bluffs, expanses of still, clear water and billowing clouds converged to create landscapes of interlocking color and shape.
 
Smith embodies his practice as a process of personal discovery, his works exploring the human body’s psychological and spiritual relationship to both natural and built environments. His work is historically grounded in its use of traditional materials including carved stone, ceramics and oil paint. His work is informed and expanded by the performative and embodied artforms of dance and theater. Smith’s figurative work references modernist sculpture and painting: cubism, surrealism, neoclassicism and naturalism.

He was educated in fine art and Socratic Seminar at Biola University in Los Angeles, receiving his BFA in Studio Arts in 2014. He has exhibited in group exhibitions at La Beast, Green Gallery, Prism Gallery, Pasadena City College, and has publicly visible artworks around Los Angeles.
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Works
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Leaning Visage
    Leaning Visage
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Acceptance
    Acceptance
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Balance
    Balance
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Courage
    Courage
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Formation
    Formation
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Heart
    Heart
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Moonrise
    Moonrise
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Rebirth
    Rebirth
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Reclining Figure
    Reclining Figure
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Springtime
    Springtime
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, The Performer
    The Performer
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Vision
    Vision
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Willingness
    Willingness
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Window Tableau
    Window Tableau
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Contingency
    Contingency
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Attention
    Attention
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Awareness
    Awareness
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, By The Sea
    By The Sea
  • Nathaniel Kyung Smith, Lost In Thought
    Lost In Thought
Exhibitions
News
Bibliography
Nathaniel Kyung Smith

2024 - Paintings, Reorientation of the Earth group show, La Beast Gallery, Los Angeles,
CA
2023 - Guardian / Messenger, Chimera group show, La Beast Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 - Neoclassical Head, New Works group show, Zara Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 - The Alameda Pass, laser cut steel tryptic, Public Art commission for the city of
Huntington Park, CA
2019 - Contingency, painting group show at Boone Gallery, Pasadena, CA
2015 - Semaphores of Light, interactive sculptural installation, group show at Prism
Gallery, Pasadena, CA
2014 - Semaphores of Light, interactive sculptural installation at Green Gallery, La
Mirada, CA
2014 - Bachelor of Fine Arts, Studio Arts from Biola University, La Mirada