Jack Smith

Born in Ohio and arriving in New York in 1953, where he worked until his death in 1989, Jack Smith became a key figure in the cultural history of Downtown New York film, performance, and art. Smith unequivocally resisted and upturned the world of accepted conventions, whether artistic, moral or legal. Irreverent in tone and delirious in effect, Smith’s films, such as the notorious Flaming Creatures (1961), are at once wildly camp and subtly polemic. Although best known for his contributions to underground cinema, Smith’s influence also extends across the realm of performance art, photography and experimental theatre.

Jack Smith's estate is represented by Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.