Behind The Caribbean Curtain

Emerging artist Paul Anthony Smith’s seductive images of island culture beckon—and very clearly keep you out

- Mary Kaye Schilling

ON THE MORNING OF HIS FIRST major show, Paul Anthony Smith is nervously watching gallery assistants hang a few last pieces. “I’ve been working on this since last fall,” says Smith. “Having the works here— it looks strange. I’m letting everyone into my world. They’re not just mine anymore.”

The artist, based in Brooklyn, New York, is trying not to think about the possibility that some might be sold. “I love everything I do, so I get a little annoyed when someone buys a piece. Letting go is the hardest part,” he says. “So then I make another one.”

Smith joined Jack Shainman’s gallery last October, and this show, called “Junction,” will occupy both of its New York City locations through May 11. “Junction” refers to the 31-year-old artist’s personal history of living at geographic and emotional crossroads. Smith spent his first nine years in Jamaica, moved to Miami with his family for another nine years and then spent four more attending the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri, where he trained in ceramics.