We’ve fallen in love with Joshua Smith’s miniature sculptures of what he calls “urban decay” – storefronts sprayed with graffiti, tiny mailboxes, and a miniature dumpster. Based in Norwood, South Australia, Smith’s career spans across 18 years, with over 100 exhibitions around the world in cities like London, Paris, Berlin, New York, and Hong Kong.
Formerly a self-taught stencil artist, Smith refocused his career to establishing Espionage Gallery, an Art Gallery based in Adelaide, South Australia showcasing both emerging and well established local, interstate, and international artists. In 2015, after the closure of Espionage Gallery, he refocused back on his own career this time as a self-taught miniaturist. His miniature works primarily focus on the often overlooked aspects of the urban environment such as grime, rust, decay to discarded cigarettes and graffiti perfectly recreated in 1:20 scale miniatures.
But his fascination with miniatures began much, much earlier. “I have been fascinated with miniatures and modelmaking ever since I was little and can remember making miniature things out of cardboard boxes ever since I was very young,” said Smith in an interview with The Daily Miniature. “The interest stems from building model kits when I was a kid and I have always been fascinated with miniature scenes from model railroads,” he added.
His favorite thing about creating miniatures? The actual challenge. “I like making things which look realistic and I like to play with perspective,” he says. “It’s funny when I take photos of my miniatures… people think that it is something that is actual real life scale but then when I take a photo of something in real life, they are wondering if it is miniature! I like messing around with that and it is something that I really enjoy doing.”
Take a closer look.
