ian smith

cyanotypes

induction gallery is pleased to highlight an online presentation of ian smith’s intimately-scaled cyanotype paintings, marking a significant and revelatory expansion of the artist’s practice.

employing the cyanotype—one of the earliest photographic processes—smith conjures luminous blue fields in which organic fragments find both tension and repose, offering new and unexpected insight into the spatial language defined by his layered, jagged, and geometric sculptural works.

where smith's three-dimensional work commands physical presence and mass, these delicate works on paper invite a quieter register. intimate in scale, smith’s cyanotype paintings soften the artist's characteristic formal vocabulary—the fractured plane, the weighted fragment, the dynamic edge—dissolving hard matter into something atmospheric and contemplative. each work functions as balance; a companion not of reproduction, but of meditation upon it.

the cyanotype process itself becomes integral to the work's meaning. by harnessing ultraviolet light upon iron-sensitized paper, smith enacts a ritual in which time, shadow, and exposure are primary tools. what is fixed on paper is never fully controlled—the process resisting precision, favoring revelation over intention. in this way, the artist cedes a measure of authorship to light itself, allowing the deep indigo of open water, the silver-blue of overcast skies, and the pale wash of bioluminescence as visual cue. the resulting work suggests passage while remaining rooted in elemental specificity of the artist's formal foci.

ian smith, cyanotype (small), 2026

ian smith, cyanotype (small) iii, 2026

ian smith, cyanotype (small) i, 2026

ian smith, cyanotype (small) vi, 2026

suspended within these blue fields—forms recognizable yet ghostly in presence—carry the sculptural thinking: forms caught mid-evolution, hovering between material and immaterial states. together, these works generate a rhythm that is at once energizing and quelling, activating the eye, while stilling the mind.

taken as a whole, ian smith: cyanotypes invites viewers to surrender to what cannot be fully named, decoded, or fixed, holding truths in their silence.

ian smith, cyanotype (small) vii, 2026

ian smith, cyanotype (small) ix, 2026

ian smith, cyanotype (small) viii, 2026

ian smith, cyanotype (small) v, 2026

ian smith, cyanotype (small) iv, 2026

ian smith, cyanotype (small) x,2026