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Zak Smith

Other ResourcesArticlesBiography

SELECTED WORKS BY Zak Smith

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Zak Smith
Full-Spectrum Dominance in All Theaters

2007

Acrylic and metallic ink on paper

82.5 x 71.1 cm
The list of Zak Smith’s influences is as immense and eclectic as his output of drawings: Art Nouveau, smut, Japanese woodcuts, comic books, German expressionist film, Viennese Secessionism, animation, Araki’s photos, high brow literature (favourites: Julio Cortezar, Martin Amis, Anais Nin), and punk culture, just to name a few.
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Zak Smith
Things I Drew and Pinned to the Wall

2007

Acrylic on paper

89.5 x 71.1 cm
Executed in pen and ink, Smith’s small and highly elaborate drawings describe a world born equally of autobiographic reality and fiction. Often producing his drawings as series, presented as individual pieces or amassed into large panels, Smith’s works allude to narrative sequence, suggesting illustrated stories and themes.
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Zak Smith
Girls in the Naked Girl Business: Mandy Morbid (II)

2007

Acrylic on paper

88.9 x 69. 8 cm
Smith sources his imagery from a wide range of sources including studies of friends from his past employment in the porn industry. These women feature largely in Smith’s work as protagonists of indulgence, sexuality, and abandon; their inherent sensuality a departure point for visual embellishment of luscious patterning, rich hues, evocative composition, and prurient texture.
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Zak Smith
Girls in the Naked Girl Business: Sasha Grey

2007

Acrylic and metallic ink on paper

91.4 x 67.3 cm
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Zak Smith
100 Girls and 100 Octopuses

2005

Acrylic and metallic ink on paper: 98 parts Each part:

25.4 x 20.3 cm Overall: 175.2 x 281.9 cm
Ideas of excess, obsession, and gratification run large throughout Smith’s laborious process, exuberant aesthetic, and choice of motifs; the letchy sea creatures in his 100 Girls and 100 Octopuses were chosen as much for their formal qualities of line as for their association with style icons such as Gustav Klimt and James Bond.
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Zak Smith
100 Girls and 100 Octopuses

2005

Acrylic and metallic ink on paper: 98 parts Each part:

25.4 x 20.3 cm Overall: 175.2 x 281.9 cm

ARTICLES

My Lunch With Zak Smith, Aka Zak Sabbath
by Tulsa Kinney, January 2010

ARTILLERY: Do you believe in God?
ZAK SMITH: No. (Pauses, then smirks). Okay, you can't scientifically disprove it, so maybe there's a God. But if there is, he's definitely a jerk. So it's either I don't believe in him, or if it turns out he's real, I have a bone to pick.

When did you lose your virginity?
Fourteen.

Do you consider your involvement in porn an extension of your art?
Not at all. Sometimes I make pictures that are about the porn business, the way CĂ©zanne made pictures about apples. But the apples weren't his art. His art was painting. I've answered that question so much, that I'm convinced no one ever reads these interviews.

Do you consider yourself lucky? Because a lot of men would envy your position.
Yeah, I'm lucky. I feel it's important to point out that I'm lucky because I wouldn't want people to think I'm one of those artists who thinks they're successful because the art world rewards quality. Because it doesn't. I make good work, but the fact that I happen to be successful is just per chance, because they're unrelated things.

What's more important to you, sex or art?
Sex.

But what if you were stranded on an island, and you could either have all the sex you wanted, but could never make art. Or you could make art all day, but never have sex?
Depends on the person on the island.

What's the ultimate compliment to you? Is it when someone is praising your art, your writing, or your fucking?
I think compliments are kinda cheap. If you do anything in public, you're going to get compliments, and you're going to get insults. A real compliment isn't what is said, it's who says it. So, if it's someone whose art you really appreciate, and they like your art, then that's a meaningful thing. If there's someone you really want to have sex with, and they want to have sex with you, then that's a compliment, I guess.

Read the entire article here
Source: artillerymag.com


No Apologies: An Interview with Zak Smith
by Justin Taylor, September 11 2009

I’m instantly suspicious of any book with “memoir” on its cover. You can hardly blame me. Everyone knows that memoirs are all too often pity parties, schmaltz festivals, excuse-offs, or some miserable combination of the three: You Should Feel Guilty That My Father _____; How Jesus Taught Me to Stop ____ing and Discover My Inner ____; Ruining My Life and the Lives of Those Around Me was Actually Healthy for All of Us Because _____. Yeah, yeah. Zak Smith’s We Did Porn: Memoir and Drawings, however, is a breed apart. For starters, he’s not in recovery. Moreover, his book offers nothing in the way of comfort or apology. How could it? He (1) is writing about a discomposing subject, and (2) is not sorry for anything.

Zak Smith’s Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow was in the 2004 Whitney Biennial, and was later published by Tin House books (publisher as well of the present volume). In 2006, he began performing in alt-porn under the name Zak Sabbath. Smith/Sabbath is an exceptionally intelligent and perceptive individual who has excelled, without much apparent effort, in two—now, with this book, three—creative mediums. His prose spirals smart and sharp as concertina wire, his judgments are merciless, and he’s got enviable comic timing.

“Here, bent over a salad, is Auspicia Clay, who looks like an assistant veterinarian and for whom the words adult industry are not just a euphemism for porno but rather a useful term to describe a long and irrational resume tied together only by the fact that nothing on it should be done to children. She might try to persuade another self-described female-friendly production company to fund a movie where girls fuck boys who fuck other boys in places all over New York City, or she might try to find a fetish-friendly production company to help Ella Revenge shoot a movie where she’s fucked with a loaded gun—or she might just relax into steadier and better paychecks, writing reviews of dildos and kicking businessmen in small hotel rooms.”

Read the entire article here
Source: thefastertimes.com

artnet.com
Artnet: 2009, by Joe Fyfe

therumpus.net
“The Rumpus Interview with Zak Smith”, The Rumpus: January 2009, by Michelle Knapp

andrewmichaelford.com
“Interview with Zak Smith”, Andrew Michael Ford: October 14, 2009

maxim.co.uk
Maxim UK: September 2009, by Heavy Ste

findarticles.com
Zak Smith: Fredericks Freiser Gallery - New York, by Martha Schwendener, 2002

quarterlyconversation.com
The Zak Smith Interview, by Terri Saul