Details
For the Time Being, a collection of eight objects by Adam Parker Smith, brings together works that reflect on our contemporary existence, and celebrate the present moment. With themes that include the fleeting nature of time, pushing boundaries, joy, and connection, this work invites a closer look to things that may not be what they seem.
Parker Smith’s engages the charged history of Pop Art – one that integrates imagery from popular culture, and commercial, mass-produced objects. Parker Smith takes these objects and materials – pool floats, sleeping bags, synthetic balloons, shag carpet, even spaghetti – and uses them to visually reference ancient objects that symbolize the passing of time. Amphora (Bradley Cooper) takes an object that originated in the Neolithic period to hold dry goods, water, food – but also as grave markers or urns – and infuses an element of pop culture. The fusion of classical form and contemporary celebrity prompts a reflection on the nature of fame and society. Sleeping bags as Sarcophagi (an early Roman stone coffin typically reserved for the wealthy) depict rest as a metaphor for time, inviting viewers to contemplate how sleep connects to the eternal rhythms of life. Forever Yours plays with weightlessness and constraint, symbolizing the nature of time as it simultaneously floats by and holds us in its grasp.
About the Artist: Adam Parker Smith’s practice is primarily sculptural, relating to painting, wall relief and appropriation. Following an extended conceptual project that consisted of Smith stealing his colleagues’ work, the artist turned toward a more traditional – perhaps earnest – approach to art-making. Working largely with ‘faux’ materials of all sorts, Smith creates highly composed, brightly colored sculptures and wall pieces that flirt with the surreal. Smith has exhibited work nationally and internationally, and has been written about in Art in America, Artforum, the New York Times and the New Yorker. For the Time Being is Smith’s first Museum exhibition on the West Coast.
Smith has had solo exhibitions at The Hole (New York, 2019, 2017, and 2016); Galería Curro (Guadalajara, 2019); and Ever Gold [Projects] (San Francisco, 2014).
For The Time Being
On March 23, 2024, SLOMA welcomed artist Adam Parker Smith, whose For The Time Being exhibition launched in SLOMA’s Gray Wing on the same day. The presentation was recorded and is available to watch here for free. Past artist talks can be watched on SLOMA’s Artist Talks and Panels page.
Exhibition Highlights
Related Programming
Every Saturday at 11 AM: Join a free tour of the exhibition led by our trained docents. Check in at the front desk.
Contamos con visitas guiadas en español, las puedes solicitar al correo esaperstein@sloma.org para agendar.
April 13, 11 AM–1 PM: Families are invited to SLOMA’s Second Saturdays for a free art activity inspired by For The Time Being. Instructions available in both English and Spanish.
This exhibition is generously presented by
Additional support provided by
