The Drawing Center
Timed Auction

2026 Benefit Auction: "The World Is The Work"

Tue, Sep 29, 2026 12:00PM EDT - Wed, Oct 14, 2026 12:00PM EDT
  2026-09-29 12:00:00 2026-10-14 12:00:00 America/New_York Drawing Center Drawing Center : 2026 Benefit Auction: "The World Is The Work" https://auction.drawingcenter.org/auctions/the-drawing-center/2026-benefit-auction-the-world-is-the-work-24728
This year's benefit auction and exhibition, "The World Is The Work", brings together artists, curators, and art lovers from The Drawing Center's community. Each guest curator will present a selection of five or more works on paper by artists they admire. Works will be on view at The Drawing Center from October 7 through October 11, and will be available for purchase through a silent auction benefiting The Drawing Center and participating artists. Bidding will begin on September 29 at 12:00 pm ET and end on October 14 at 12:00 pm ET. The Drawing Center rbrickman@drawingcenter.org
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Greg Parma Smith , "Shell", 2025
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Lot 125

Greg Parma Smith , "Shell", 2025

Estimate: $5,000 - $5,000
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Starting Bid
$3,000
[0 Bids]Bidding History
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Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $50
$200 $200
$1,000 $300
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $3,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000

Greg Parma Smith

Shell, 2025
Graphite on paper
Unframed: 11 x 14 inches (27.94 x 35.56 cm)
Framed: 13 x 15 inches (33.02 x 38.1 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Hoffman Donahue Gallery

Selected by The Drawing Center

Working across figuration and abstraction, Greg Parma Smith (b. 1983, Cambridge, Massachusetts) combines traditional oil painting with layered imagery drawn from art history and contemporary visual culture. His work positions itself as a post-subculture extension of earlier painters who were attuned to the artificiality of the image, reanimating that concern through a contemporary visual language. As he describes it, his work “seeks to create new spaces in painting that make the synthetic foundation of images more vivid, strange and sensate… putting pictures in a kind of suspension that revels in their constructed nature.”

 

Parma Smith’s latest series, developed since 2017, explores optical effects that hold the viewer in a state of uncertainty between flatness and depth. Built from repeated geometric forms and subtle tonal shifts, his compositions appear to both recede and advance, hovering at the edge of dimensionality. Though they may resemble digital images, his process is entirely analogue, using a systematic approach to construct volume from discrete units.

 

Parma Smith received his MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University School of the Arts in 2007 and his BA in Visual Arts, magna cum laude, from Columbia University in 2005. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Hoffman Donahue, New York (2026); Museum im Bellpark, Kriens (2025); David Lewis, New York (2024); François Ghebaly, New York (2024); the Swiss Consulate, New York (2023); and Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich (2021). Selected group exhibitions include Museum im Bellpark, Kriens (2024); MAMCO—Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva (2024); Basel Social Club, Basel (2022); Petzel, New York (2020); and Le Maximum, Los Angeles (2020).

 

Parma Smith’s work is in the permanent collections of the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Cleveland Museum of Art; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; MAMCO—Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva; and Museum im Bellpark, Kriens.

Overall Dimensions
Height: 13.00 in
Width: 15.00 in

Artworks purchased at the auction will be available for pickup at The Drawing Center beginning on October 19, 2026. Wrapping of the artwork is provided.

Please call ahead (212.219.2166 x216) to let us know when you plan to come pick up your work.

Shipping is the responsibility of the purchaser. Upon request, our staff will provide a list of shippers who deliver to destinations within the United States and overseas.