The gag cartoon is one of the most economical forms in art. A drawing, a caption, and a beat of silence before the laugh lands. In this body of work, Smit takes that compressed structure and slows it down. Scenes that once existed as quick pen-and-ink wash observations are rendered in paint, with attention to color, surface. The jokes remain intact, but they now have to hold up under the sustained gaze that a painting demands.

After a year and a half of sending hundreds of cartoons in, the New Yorker bought their first and soon two of Guy Richards Smit’s cartoons were the most shared cartoons of 2025. Following his solo exhibition in 2026, Smit will be the featured cartoonist in the upcoming Winter issue of the newly relaunched Playboy Magazine.