ian smith

february 21 - april 4, 2026

ian smith, untitled, 2026

opening reception
february 21, 2026
7 – 10pm

induction gallery is pleased to announce its inaugural season of programming with a solo presentation by artist Ian Smith, featuring a new body of work that encompasses both painting and sculpture. This debut exhibition marks the gallery’s commitment to establishing a vital platform for emerging artists and creative practices, gathering space for dialogue and exchange, and fostering meaningful and lasting relationships in the community of Los Angeles.

Smith’s latest body of work brings together tabletop cast aluminum sculptures and a large-scale cyanotype painting in a reflection on form, tactility, and the enduring mythology of portals and dolmens. Much like in fairy tales, these ancient structures distort and heighten the laws of nature—reminding us that such laws exist primarily in our minds; the world being perfectly thinkable without them. Drawing from architectural and oral traditions, the artist explores the liminal threshold between the physical and metaphysical; a delicate balance of existence between terrestrial plains and transcendent exploration.

Dolmens—megalithic structures of upright stones and large horizontal capstones found across Europe, Asia, and beyond— served as burial chambers, ritual sites, and symbolic gateways between worlds. These Neolithic monuments have captivated human imagination for millennia; markers of sacred ground and conduits for spiritual transformation. Their enigmatic and mysterious presence, mainly found on sedimentary plains, hilly regions, and river basins, have inspired countless interpretations, including portals to the afterlife.

Smith pays homage to these ancient forms, translating their monumental scale and mystical resonance into intimate and tactile sculptures that reimagine the dolmen’s essential geometry and interactive use. Honoring the exchange between totemic voids and mass, these cast aluminum works index both rugged terrain, texture, and the transformation of material from liquid to solid; an echoing of the dolmen’s intervention in our natural world. Softening the sculptures’ layered and jagged forms, Smith’s cyanotype painting creates a luminous blue field that activates organic shapes and fragments. By employing this photographic process, the artist creates a ritual and transcendence of space and time of his own; evoking the celestial and aquatic, suggesting passage of space and time, through the process of light and shadow.

Together, these works form an exploration of our perpetual desire to mark, frame, and sanctify transitional spaces. Like in fairy tales, one has the capacity to roam in defiance of natural law—embarking on a journey of inexplicable and nebulous truths. Italian poet Cristina Campo reminds us of this freedom of possibilities:

“The inexorable, inexhaustible moral of the fairy tale is victory over the law of necessity, the constant transition to a new order of relationships, and absolutely nothing else, for there is absolutely nothing else to learn on this earth.”