Phillip K. Smith III b. 1972

Phillip K. Smith III (1972 - ) is an American artist living and working in the Southern California desert.  From his Palm Springs, CA studio, he creates light-based work that draws upon ideas of space, form, color, light + shadow, environment, and change.  He is known for creating iconic and immersive site-specific works, ranging from large-scale to highly intimate, that slow our pace of life, allowing us to witness beauty in its most raw, pure state.  As the first artist ever commissioned by Dolce & Gabbana for Alta Moda, Phillip was inspired by the unique beauty of Nora, Sardinia and the metaphysical mood of the 2024 Alta Moda collection when conceiving of his newest installation, Nora Mirage.

Significant select public works include Lucid Stead in Joshua Tree, CA, The Circle of Land and Sky at the inaugural 2017 Desert X exhibition, Open Sky in Milan, Italy for the 2018 Salone Del Mobile, the animated 110’ long Detroit Skybridge in Downtown Detroit, MI, and Three Half Lozenges across the façade of the Newark Museum of Art.  In 2023, he had two separate solo exhibitions on view at the Palm Springs Art Museum and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.  His work is held in numerous private collections as well as institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Toledo Museum of Art, Palm Springs Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, and Newark Museum of Art

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