Paul Anthony Smith - Paper Variable 2026
Paul Anthony Smith
2026 Paper Variables
Dieu Donné is pleased to release Spring in the city, a new Paper Variables edition series by Paul Anthony Smith. Created in collaboration with Dieu Donné’s Senior Director of Artistic Projects and Master Collaborator Amy Jacobs, the project is comprised of six handmade paper variables.
Artist Statement
“After living in the city for more than a decade, I have become increasingly captivated by its seasonal shifts—the long, dormant winters and the fleeting arrival of spring. There is a particular moment each year when the previously bare trees begin to awaken. Within a remarkably short window, buds emerge, blossoms appear, and branches are transformed into expansive canopies of color and texture. These changes can be easy to overlook within the pace and density of the city, yet they offer a quiet reminder to look upward and recognize the cycles of growth and renewal that exist around us.
I became interested in translating this fleeting experience through the material language of paper. Using Dieu Donné’s paper pulp process, I wanted to capture something of the physical and visual essence of the tree canopy—the density of its branches, the irregularity of its growth, and the delicate spaces between leaves and blossoms. Pulp allowed me to move beyond simply depicting the tree and instead consider how its structure, texture, and presence might be embodied within the work itself.
The process also introduces a tension between permanence and ephemerality. The spring canopy is temporary; it appears, transforms, and eventually disappears with the changing seasons. By translating this moment into paper pulp, I am able to preserve something of that experience while still allowing the material to retain its own vulnerability and organic character. The work becomes a meditation on attention, memory, and the fleeting moments of beauty that surround us—moments that are often present, but only briefly, if we remember to look up.”
Paul Anthony Smith sprays pigmented pulp paint at Dieu Donné
About the Artist
Paul Anthony Smith (b. 1988, St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica) is a Jamaica-born, New York-based artist who explores themes of post-diasporic identity, community, and cultural memory through his paintings and photography. In candid scenes of friends and family, he introduces an element of subjectivity and personal history to photographic documentation. Often with oil or spray paint, the artist inserts borders, fences, barriers, or masks onto images printed on Dibond sheets, emphasising the architectural and psychological impact of these oppressive forms. In 2012, Smith began incorporating a technique called “picotage,” in which he uses a retrofitted wooden needle to puncture and disrupt the surface of his inkjet prints, heightening depth and texture while further complicating our notions of truth and memory.
After studying ceramics at the Kansas City Art Institute, Smith moved to New York City in 2014, where he now lives and works. His recent Dreams Deferred series, which draws its inspiration and title from Langston Hughes’s seminal long-form poem, depicts the vacant lots and urban neighborhoods he encounters regularly in his life today. By overlaying shadowy fences on these familiar environments, he captures the collective disillusionment that pervaded the African American experience during the early 20th century and calls to mind social, cultural, and physical restrictions to access and equality. A collection of his large-scale picotage works that wrestle with these themes were featured in Passage, a solo exhibition at the Hyde Collection in Glen Falls, New York, in January 2024. The following summer, Smith realised his first public art installation, Melodies from a running spring, presented by Public Art Fund across bus shelters in New York, Chicago, and Boston, bringing his works into the public realm and engaging broad urban audiences.
For more information, please visit
https://www.timothytaylor.com/artists/paul-anthony-smith/
About Paper Variables
Since 2000, Dieu Donné has worked with over 50 artists to create the Paper Variable series––exclusive works handmade in our studios from wet paper pulp. Artists are invited to experiment with color, shape, and texture variations to make each piece distinctive.
The 2026 Paper Variables are exclusively available through our Membership Program. For collectors, it’s an opportunity to acquire unique works by well-known artists while supporting Dieu Donné’s artistic and educational programming. Each work is signed and numbered by the artist.