Halsey McKay is thrilled to present SMILE, a group exhibition curated by Todd von Ammon, featuring works by Kathryn Andrews, Ashley Bickerton, Catharine Czudej, Matt Kenny, Ajay Kurian, Helmut Lang, Megan Marrin, Tabor Robak and Julia Wachtel. This exhibition, in short, is based on the SMiLE Sessions, which Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks and the Beach Boys developed over the course of ten months between 1966 and 1967.
The objective of SMiLE was, according to Wilson, to create a “teenage symphony to God”. It would espouse the cardinal virtue of the Beach Boys worldview: American exceptionalism, …