CV + Contact

BIOGRAPHY

BORN 1987 IN BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND. BASED IN LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK CITY.

Jonathan David Smyth (AKA Julian Scott) is an artist working with photography, performance, moving image, sculpture, and installation. His work has been exhibited at various galleries, museums, venues, and festivals in the United States and abroad, including Free Range (London, UK), PH21 Gallery (Budapest, Hungary), Auckland Festival of Photography (New Zealand), Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival (Xiamen, China), LAST Projects (Los Angeles, CA), Photoville (Brooklyn, NY), Photographic Center Northwest (Seattle, WA), The Ulster Museum (Belfast, UK), Metro Pictures Gallery (New York City), and most recently in the FotoFest Biennial 2022 central exhibition, If I Had a Hammer (Houston, TX). Smyth’s work is held in private and public collections and has been featured in numerous print and online publications including, Aint-Bad magazine, Float Photo magazine, and Musée magazine. He has been a featured guest on The Arts Show on BBC Radio Ulster and appeared on many popular podcasts including MikeyPod with artist Michael Harren, and Good Morning, Sodomites! with comedian Zach Noe Towers.

Smyth received a BA with Honours in photography and film at Edinburgh Napier University in 2010, and an MFA in photography from Parsons School of Design in 2014. His debut monograph titled Just One More was published by bd-studios.com (New York City) in October 2017. He has given various presentations and talks as a Visiting Artist and as an Instructor in New York City at The New School, The International Center of Photography, The School of Visual Arts, The New York Public Library, and at Belfast Metropolitan College in Northern Ireland, and Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle, WA. His second monograph, Now That You’ve Gone and Come Back was published in September 2023 in tandem with his Artist-in-Residency at the Tom of Finland Foundation, LA.

Jonathan/Julian can be reached at info@jonathandavidsmyth.com

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ARTIST STATEMENT

I’VE SPENT YEARS OBSESSIVELY WRITING, RECORDING, AND DOCUMENTING MY LIFE.

As an adopted child in Northern Ireland, I was only too aware of the differences between my family and my friends at school. For years, I wasn’t allowed to talk about my adoption, and it made me feel angry and ashamed. I came out as gay at fourteen. I moved out of my parents’ house at sixteen. I then began to be honest through photography in the hope that other people might relate to my story, too. I am no longer ashamed, but I use the memory of feeling inadequate and out-of-place as a starting point for my artwork.

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