Josh Smith: Destiny

David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Josh Smith at the gallery’s 606 N Western Avenue location in Los Angeles. This marks Smith’s first solo show in Los Angeles, and his first solo painting exhibition in the United States in five years.

In these paintings, Smith takes the Grim Reaper—a recurring figure in his work—and places him on a bicycle, riding through the streets of New York. Set against the city’s skyline, the reapers weave through traffic, emerge from subway stations, and dart past the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Rather than anonymous symbols of death, these reapers are folded into the chaos of the city. They look back. Their cloaks, layered in slashes and ribbons of color—sometimes heavy in black, other times edged in blues, purples, neon greens, or acidic oranges—function as both costume and surface.