Coming in January of 2026..
Thoughts and Prayers is an exhibition that explores power, control, and ideology—examined
through the lens of a fictional society. Through sculpture, 2D work, and immersive vignettes,
artist Jacob Smith constructs a world that mirrors and distorts the structures of Western culture,
revealing the absurdities and contradictions embedded within it.
Using furniture, artifacts, dioramas, and sculptural elements, Smith’s work interrogates the
forces that shape identity: gender roles, religious dogma, political propaganda, militarism, and
consumerism. These pieces do not present answers but rather pose questions—forcing the
viewer to navigate an unfamiliar yet eerily recognizable world.
Critiquing one’s own culture carries the inherent risk of alienating parts of the audience before
the work has been fully considered. By crafting a proxy society from the ground up, Smith lays
bare the myths and mechanisms of his own. The constructed objects serve as relics of a belief
system both foreign and intimately familiar, inviting reflection on the systems society inherits,
perpetuates, and resists.
Thoughts and Prayers is a space for speculation, satire, and critique—a place to see the world
not as it is, but as it might appear from the outside looking in.