VCP’s PRINT GALLERY

August 2026 Featured Work:

Elias James Smith

Exhibition Dates: August 7th – August 30th, 2026 
Opening Reception: August 7th, 5:00 – 8:00pm

Artist Statement: 

My selections from two separate ongoing projects offer a mindful disorientation of familiarity within the natural world. The first project is more interested in the surface, form, beauty, photos taken while traveling and engaging with environments less familiar to me. There are images from a trip to Colombia, and two months spent living and working in New Orleans. My images of these places are more direct, the unknown felt more immediate to me. The other project engages with the woods of the Northeast, an environment I grew up in, exploring and playing in the woods. In these images I impose onto the trees and landscape using flashlights and stationary light sources with long exposure times. The project tests my feeling of familiarity with these places and scenes, augmenting what the eye expects and introducing a fantastical element. The images are intermixed and are meant to create a dialogue between the two ongoing works.

About the Artist: 

Elias James Smith (b. 2001) is from Shelburne Falls, MA, and based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a graduate of Bard College with a BA in Environmental Studies. He is interested in displaying the ephemeral and sometimes foreboding presences he finds in nature. Find more of his work on his website or Instagram. 

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