Gritty Urban Architecture Miniatures

Joshua Smith is an Australian-based artist with an almost two decades long career in miniatures and stencils that have been part of over 100 exhibitions all over the world. Using everything from wood and cardboard to chalk pastels and spray paint, Smith creates 1:20 scale miniatures of gritty urban architecture that truly need to be seen to be believed. Each of his works is completely scratch built and based on subject matters ranging from the Liberated X Bookshop and Shoe Repairs in Melbourne and 135 Cedar Street in San Francisco to dumpsters and shipping crates. The models all focus on what the artist describes as “the often overlooked aspects of the urban environment such as grime, rust, decay to discarded cigarettes and graffiti,” which means everything from pallets and fire escapes to garbage bags and movie posters are rendered in an absurd amount of detail. Smith’s work is so realistic that it feels like you could step out of the real world and into each of the miniature scenes.