Taylor Smith’s series of floppy disk icon portraits are painted on recycled obsolete 3.5 inch plastic computer diskette drives. These works explore identity, privacy and collective history through portraiture and discarded technology. Smith creates a conversation between digital technology and the artist’s hand. Within each painting, the viewer is taken on a journey of discovery by exploring the details of each diskette. It is a collaboration between the artist and the anonymous creators of the data stored on these 30 year old digital drives where the subject is as much the actual painting surface as it is the image painted upon it. Smith observes that today we go to great lengths to create a digital identity in addition to the actual lives we live, with the belief that these online records are only growing in importance and will outlive us all.

This artist reception is part of the Stutz Artist Association Group Exhibition on display July 8-Aug 19, 2022 at Gallery Forty-Two featuring nine different Stutz Artists.