Adam Parker Smith

“I feel like so many of my ideas start out as jokes, for better or worse.” - Adam Parker Smith

Well, it's no laughing matter. The New York-based prankster and sculptor Adam Parker Smith has a reputation for making art that challenges the laws of gravity.

By using a universal symbol of celebration, Smith takes a Pop-minded stab at consumer culture. They look just like the balloons from a carnival...but not everything is as it seems. The heavy sculptures of Adam Parker Smith are covered with thick layers of car paint to give them a hyperrealistic look. With a needle-sharp focus, Smith improves this recognizable object to give us a feeling of everlasting happiness.

Adam Parker Smith questions our reason for celebration with party favors filled with satire. His contemporary series is technical and conceptual.

The artist puts a collection of balloons in uncomfortable situations, and with airy contemporary ridiculousness, he uses these celebratory shapes to express his undying love for comedy. Once fleeting symbols of joy, now become heavyweight sculptures with no expiration date.

Take a walk in the Moco Garden of Amsterdam and experience Thinking of You by Adam Parker Smith. Between two massive blocks of Carrara marble - one of the most expensive materials in the world - a sweet, innocent-looking balloon gets sandwiched, but not deflated. How on earth?! Actually, the contemporary sculptor Smith dedicates his entire practice to giving shape to some of the world's most unbelievable contrasts.

A Thinking of You balloon is a sweet gesture we typically gift to those who are ill or recovering. However, this thoughtful act becomes immortal after it's turned into a monument - one that withstands the test of time.