As a painter, Josh Smith explores basic motifs that we all recognise. He paints the same motifs over and over to test what painting can do – and what it can’t. In his Name Paintings series, for example, he uses his own initials, JS, instead of a grand, traditional motif. In his five works Untitled (2008), we see Smith playing with both motif and expression in a variety of ways, but with the same size, colour palette, and expressive brushstrokes.

Although the styles of these works vary, they all clearly reflect Smith’s ongoing exploration of what’s possible within the medium of painting. While it could seem like he’s simply a self-absorbed artist constantly painting his own name, the fact that Smith is one of the most common surnames in the English-speaking world instead reminds us how we’re all part of something much bigger than ourselves. Smith invites us to think about what happens when the personal meets the universal – and how a simple name can hold so much more than we might expect.