Narrative, text, found objects, collage and assemblage—all of these elements factor into Alexis Smith’s continuing artistic practice. A Los Angeles native, Smith has been picking away from the American mythos of Hollywood and popular culture in order to create work that often resembles an amalgamation of Joseph Cornell and Barbara Kruger. Smith was the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at the Holly Solomon Gallery in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

In the case of Pearl of the Pacific, Smith’s artwork evinces American naval action in the pacific theatre during World War II, as well as the toys and movies that followed in the post-war years. The fury and heroism of naval warfare is serenely reduced to models on graph paper, much in way it was viewed by strategists and commanders who plotted the action.