If you want to be amazed and astonished, step into the world of an artist who views autism as his magical power. Cardboard Genius: The Architectural Marvels of Kambel Smith is now on view at Historic Germantown through June 29. Smith, a self-taught artist who grew up in Germantown, builds large-scale, intricate replicas of architecturally significant buildings out of cardboard he salvages from the trash. Museum visitors bend over Smith’s buildings like Lilliputians, peering into windows, exclaiming at the attention to detail.
The scene stealers in the show include Smith’s rendition of Philadelphia’s Police Administration Building (aka the Roundhouse), which rises above its pedestrian purpose like a Roman Temple, and the majesty of the Georgia State House with its golden cupola. Kambel’s sense of humor hits a home run with his creation of the Germantown Historical Society, the very building in which the exhibition is held.
“Seeing Kambel’s work in the round is a transformative experience,” said Tuomi Forrest, executive director of Historic Germantown. “He has shown his art around the world, but not here before. We are getting an extremely positive response with folks from around the region and across the country.
How does he do it? A plaque on the wall of the exhibition written by Smith’s father, Lonnie, answers their question. “He doesn’t plan things on paper. He just sees the building in his mind and starts working with a few pieces of cardboard, a knife, and some paint. He brings entire cityscapes to life.”
Chinatown Friendship Gate by Kambel Smith. | Photo: Stacia Friedman
Since 2019, Smith has had solo shows at major galleries in New York City, London, and Atlanta. His work is in the collections of the American Folk Museum in Manhattan, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the West Collection in Oaks, Pennsylvania. In 2021, he was a Pew Fellowship recipient. Last August, Smith, now 37, was featured in the New York Times Magazine. The article references Smith’s nearly 27-foot-tall version of the Burj Khalida in Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper.
“He’s a wild card. You never know. He always seems to know what to make,” said Lonnie Smith, who is more than just a supportive family member. If not for their father’s encouragement, Kambel and his brother Kantai may not have discovered their own unique talents.
“Kambel and Kantai were both diagnosed with autism as children,” said Lonnie who raised his two boys and a daughter on his own. “The beginning of Kambel’s life was filled with hardship and trauma. His mother left us, and he didn’t fit in. I encouraged my sons to think of themselves not as people with limitations, but instead as ‘Autisarians,’ a term I invented to describe beings born with super-human abilities. I made up stories that inspired them both to go beyond expectation,” he explained.
The Roundhouse by Kambel Smith. | Photo: Stacia Friedman
“During the past 10 years, I have engaged Kambel in a daily storytelling session of improvised science fiction in which I would start the narrative and Kambel would respond by finishing it. This unleashed a spate of drawings by Kambel of characters and fictional landscapes in their shared stories. I became a different person because I had to change my life to suit what they needed.”
As a result, Smith experienced a burst of creativity and confidence, resulting in a series of graphic novels. His father learned how to code so that he could teach Kantai, who is gifted in math. Using that skill, Kantai created an award-winning 17-minute animated film about Austisarians.
When he was 15, Smith developed an interest in oil painting. He was quite talented but, eventually, the family could not afford to buy canvas. However, there was no shortage of cardboard in the trash. How any young man could turn boxes that formerly transported oranges into monumental works of art defines the meaning of Autisarian.
“One of his first pieces was a large-scale model of the Philadelphia Museum of Art,” said Lonnie. “It was so big, we didn’t know how to transport it. Eventually, every room of our Germantown home was transformed into Kambel’s studio,” he explained. “We needed more space so we recently moved to Reading, Pennsylvania.” Neighbors there quickly took notice when Kambel recreated Reading’s iconic Pagoda built in 1907. “It was so large he had to work on it on the lawn,” said his father. “Within minutes a TV crew showed up!”
Benjamin Franklin Bridge by Kambel Smith. | Photo: Stacia Friedman
Chris Byrne, founder and director of the Elaine De Kooning House in East Hampton, New York, first discovered Smith on Instagram in 2018. The timing was critical. As soon as Byrne began representing him, he elevated Smith on the national and international stage. “In 2018, I showed his art at the De Kooning House, then at the Outsider Art Fair in New York in 2019 and, later, in Atlanta,” said Byrne. “He’s relatively young by artist standards.”
At the Marlborough Gallery show in 2019, Smith’s showed replicas of buildings by his favorite architects, Robert Venturi and Frank Gehry. While Gehry’s designs would be challenging in any medium, Smith reproduced Gehry’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in foam core board, paper, ink, and acrylic paint, achieving Gehry’s feat of making solid buildings appear to be melted steel.
Smith’s family created Autisarian.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the face of autism by changing the attitude of those challenged by the so-called disorder. On his Facebook page, Smith identifies as an “autistic survivor” and states, “Autism is not a disease. Do not try to cure us. Try to understand us.”
Cardboard Genius: The Architectural Marvels of Kambel Smith is free and open to the public at Germantown Historical Society, 5501 Germantown Avenue, from 12-4 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. See additional details here: https://historicgermantownpa.org/exhibits/
A bus stop will be run from the roundhouse as people will exit on the NJ train crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge at the Roundhouse.