On our dedicated arts space on West Graham Street in Glasgow, we’re showing a brand-new collaborative work from Glasgow and Los Angeles-based visual artist Roderick Abercrombie Smith, and New York wordsmith Sam Wagner, curated by Martin Gray.

The piece features five powerful, frenetic drawings of heads by Smith, captioned by Wagner with a characteristically humorous ‘haiku’: “I Shall Live in the Now, Starting Tomorrow!”. An appropriate declaration for the challenges we’ve all faced in the past year, it also explores recurrent themes from both artists’ work, examining the dimmer recesses of the human condition with an undertow of ironic humour.

Of the exhibit, Smith and Wagner said, “It really is synergy, the inspiration from both of us, two minds sharing visions and finding our own way to share. It’s like the Coen brothers or Gilbert and George – but with much smaller budgets than the former and more laughs than most artists enjoy.”

Curator Martin Gray noted that, “The powerful, yet delicate beauty of Roderick’s imagery has extraordinary presence, which combines with Sam’s darkly insightful humour, to create something memorably poignant, that plays with your head like a great song… The prints are housed in polished coverings that merge reflections of the ever-changing rhythms in the surrounding environment with the artwork itself. As the city darkens, the work is backlit, projecting its message out into the street like a row of faces inside curtainless windows or a mirror to yourself… Street art continues to be a powerful way of engaging with a wide audience and promoting the work of emerging and established artists.”