PJ Smalley

Artist Statement

My artistic practice examines the friction between high art, personal interiority, and the relentless noise of our post-internet culture. By blending representational realism with tactile, expressive abstraction and collage elements, I construct physical spaces that mirror the fragmented way we experience identity and reality in a screen-saturated society.
In "Theory of Reality," the focal point centers on a meticulously rendered figure clad in a graphic t-shirt bearing Michelangelo’s iconic The Creation of Adam. This pairing acts as a deliberate tension point: the peak of classical Renaissance humanism and divine connection is flattened into casual, mass-produced streetwear. By rendering this commodified history with painterly precision, I call into question how sacred narratives survive when they are constantly contextualized by digital media.
Surrounding the central figure is a chaotic landscape of contemporary detritus and internet signage. Elements like a grayed-out emoji, a music streaming interface playing a track labeled "Trash," a gaming controller, and a literal sign declaring "THIS ISN'T REAL" float across the canvas. These pieces dissolve the boundary between physical objects and fleeting UI graphics. A parallel logic operates in the artwork "Teenagers Arguing," where the visual friction shifts from pop cultural objects to the social landscape of online subcultures. In that piece, I collaged the canvas with its own 1:1 digital double, pushing the work further into a meta-dialogue on self-replication.
Through layers of thick, turbulent brushwork and juxtaposed collage media, the painting mimics the cognitive dissonance of modern scrolling. The surface becomes a psychological terrain where classical aspirations, digital noise, and existential doubt loop indefinitely, inviting the viewer to question what remains authentic within a constructed, post-truth landscape.