Ray Smith Studio joins Decentralized for a round table, to provide insight on the Studio’s collaborative practice. The discussion is set among an installation of eight large scale Table Drawings. In the collaborative spirit of Ray Smith Studio, the works were created by approximately fifteen artists, and are not authored. From 2010 to 2012, the artists participated in an uninhibited, stream of conscious draw-a-thon.

These drawing experiments coincided with the Occupy Wall Street protests. The 2011 movement marked a new state of resistance. Smith reflected on the time, noting that everyone wanted to participate in the protests, but there was not a guideline on how to do so. Inviting each other to draw freely and spontaneously, Ray Smith Studio responded to the widespread protests and growing sense of resistance in their unpredictable and experimental Table Drawings. During Features, the Studio discusses the Table Drawing process, and responds to the artworks in a new age of protest.

RAY SMITH STUDIO

Ray Smith first moved to New York in the late 1970s to join in what he describes as a “particular type of energy.” Since establishing his studio, the artist has been a continuous champion of collaboration and community. Smith has shown in the Whitney Biennial; the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others.

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