Los Angeles – OPENING NIGHT SATURDAY APRIL 25! Join us for the launch of HARRY SMITH’S COSMIC COLLAGE (April 25 – May 31), a multi-venue celebration of the boundless, unruly imagination of artist, filmmaker, folklorist, and self-described alchemist of culture, Harry Everett Smith — co-presented by The Philosophical Research Society and Harry Smith Archives.

We open on 4/25 with HARRY SMITH’S ALCHEMICAL ABSTRACTIONS — featuring an immersive presentation led by Harry Smith scholar and Harry Smith Archives director Rani Singh, weaving together rare images and footage from Smith’s life and work. Followed by a very special live performance by the acclaimed, genre-defying musician and visual artist Devendra Banhart and friends, accompanying selections of these materials and a screening of Smith’s hand-painted EARLY ABSTRACTIONS (1939–1956).

A singular figure of the American avant-garde, Smith moved fluidly between disciplines, assembling a body of work that resists containment—from visionary abstract cinema to his groundbreaking Anthology of American Folk Music. Deeply engaged with mysticism, folklore, and systems of hidden knowledge, Smith approached art as a form of spiritual inquiry—where sound, image, and pattern become tools for re-enchanting the world.

Spanning film screenings, live performances, panels, an exhibition, and more at PRS, The Getty Research Institute, Zebulon, 2220 Arts + Archives, and online, HARRY SMITH’S COSMIC COLLAGE traces an expansive creative universe where disciplines dissolve and art becomes a bridge between the material and the unseen.

Click below to see full series lineup and visit prs.org for info & tickets!

SERIES PROGRAM:

4/25 — OPENING NIGHT!: Harry Smith’s Alchemical Abstractions + live performance by Devendra Banhart  – featuring EARLY ABSTRACTIONS (1939–56) screening — co-presented by 7th House & Los Angeles Filmforum

5/7 — Brain Drawings: The Art of Harry Smith (Exhibition Opening) in The Philosophical Research Society’s Hansell Gallery

5/7 — Mind Maps: Exploring Harry Smith’s Hermetic Allusions – Panel Discussion w/ David Orr, William Kiesel, Jessica Hundley, and Chuck Stein

5/21 — Adam Green Explains Harry Smith + HEAVEN & EARTH MAGIC (1957) screening — Adam Green in person! — co-presented by 7th House & Los Angeles Filmforum

5/24 — Harry Smith’s Anthology as a Magical Instrument presented by Matt Marble of The American Museum of Paramusicology (Online Presentation)

5/29 — Show & Tell: Harry Smith Archive at the Getty Research Institute

5/29 — Celebration of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music at Zebulon

5/31 — MAHAGONNY (1980) screening at 2220 Arts + Archives — co-presented by 7th House, Los Angeles Filmforum, and 2220 Arts

Whether for one or two events, or for all 8 parts of the series, we hope to see you there!