Artist Adam Parker Smith’s Midas touch turns objects into statues

The Brooklyn-based artist Adam Parker Smith, whose sculptures fuse old-world mythology with new-world pop, has reimagined Warhol’s Silver Factory in resplendent gold. As in his past work with Greco-Roman-inspired vases, Smith chromed four familiar objects (a Tumi suitcase, a Kartell chair, Hunter boots, and a Shinola bike) in gold nitrate. The addition of a rust-like patina further blurs the line between ancient and current. “It’s this idea that you can take, say, a marble statue that’s been in existence for 2,000 years, and re-create it into something totally contemporary,” says Smith, who is at work on a new commission for—fittingly—the Palms Resort in Las Vegas.