Artist Phillip K. Smith III Talks Light And Shadow In Joshua Tree
Heralding in the second and final day of Interior Design‘s Giants of Design Retreat, Editor in Chief Cindy Allen welcomed artist Phillip K. Smith III, who uses light as a medium to create optically shifting sculptures and site-specific installations. “Up here, it feels like you’re fully in the landscape,” Smith told attendees, sharing how California’s Joshua Tree continues to shape his work.
Trained as an architect, Smith uses his understanding of site to showcase what he deems the simplicity of light and shadow, creating works that often reflect their surroundings, like mirrored monoliths for the Coachella music festival as well as private commissions. “The desert is a landscape where epic ideas can be conceived and followed through on,” he said, referencing notable desert works such as the Invisible House—film producer Chris Hanley’s glass-walled home in Joshua Tree—and James Turrell’s Roden Crater in Arizona.
“I don’t think that i could do the work that i do if I lived somewhere else,” he said, stating that he’s been building his career in the area for more than 25 years. “I realized after living in New York, and Boston, and Providence that the desert was part of my soul; it’s part of who I am, and it was helping me understand my voice as an artist, which I was seeking to establish when I came back to the desert [in 2000].” Speaking to the beauty of the desert scape, Smith shared that his main medium—light—reveals itself in his chosen home through reflections, horizons, and open sky. “How can I take a bit of that sunset and hold it and present it and play with that,” he said, describing a significant catalyst for his creative evolution. “The idea of color, and light, and shifting light, the sense of the ephemeral—that sense that if you look away, you may miss it—became part of my work.”
From a 110-foot-long skybridge in downtown Detroit animated with light to dynamic museum shows and site-specific installations like Lucid Stead in Joshua Tree, Smith continues to chase light and shadow. Lucid Stead, a worn homesteader shack on Smith’s property that he outfitted with mirrored panels around its exterior and mirrored light boxes in the windows and doorframes, exemplifies his approach. “The intent was, if I erase half the shack would it become more prominent in the landscape?” Smith shared. “I love taking on spaces, trained as an architect it is forever carved into my soul: A respect for site.”
Explore more work by Phillip K. Smith III including the Santa Monica Linear, created in collaboration with SOM, and his 2019 installation “Portals: A Space for Color.“
A very special thank you to our 2025 Giants of Design Retreat partners: Mohawk Group, Mannington Commercial, HBF + HBF Textiles, Kohler Company, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. B2B, Bernhardt Design, Arktura, Craftmade, Cosentino, Shaw Contract, Armstrong / Turf Design, B+N Industries, Andreu World, Haworth, Lutron, Momentum Textiles and Wallcovering, NeoCon/THE MART, Kimball International, Tuuci, Mohawk Group, and Material Bank, which offset the estimated carbon footprint for the event.
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