Zak Smith

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American artist and pornographic actor (born 1976)

title: "Zak Smith" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["20th-century-american-painters", "21st-century-american-painters", "21st-century-american-male-artists", "alt-porn", "american-male-painters", "american-male-pornographic-film-actors", "artists-from-syracuse,-new-york", "indie-role-playing-game-designers", "living-people", "american-erotic-artists", "20th-century-american-male-artists", "cooper-union-alumni", "yale-university-alumni", "skowhegan-school-of-painting-and-sculpture-alumni", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "1976-births"] description: "American artist and pornographic actor (born 1976)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zak_Smith" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American artist and pornographic actor (born 1976) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox artist"]

FieldValue
nameZak Smith
imageZak Smith.jpg
image_size200px
captionZak Smith in 2005
birth_date
birth_placeSyracuse, New York, U.S.
known_for
educationCooper Union
Yale University
notable_worksGirls in the Naked Girl Business
::

| name = Zak Smith | image = Zak Smith.jpg | image_size = 200px | caption = Zak Smith in 2005 | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Syracuse, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | known_for = | education = Cooper Union Yale University | movement = | notable_works = Girls in the Naked Girl Business

Zak Smith (born 1976), also known as Zak Sabbath, is an American artist, role-playing game author, and adult film actor.

Early life and education

Smith was born in 1976 in Syracuse, New York. His father, Howard Jay Smith, is a writer and former television executive.

Smith received a BFA from Cooper Union in 1998 and a MFA from Yale University in 2001.

Career

Smith is known for his portraiture in a style that blends influences including abstract painting and comic book art. These portraits include his series of paintings of strippers, Girls in the Naked Girl Business, two of which are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. Some of his works are shown on Artsy.

His work Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow is a multimedia composition of 760 drawings, photos, and paintings, one for each page of the novel's first printing. It was exhibited at the 2004 Whitney Biennial and is now owned by the Walker Art Center.

Smith has written for role-playing games such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Demon City, the Cube World series of adventures, I Am the Weapon, and Places to Go, People to Be. Several of his contributions received awards, including multiple ENNIEs for various Lamentations of the Flame Princess products.

Smith is also known as an adult film actor. He entered the pornography industry through the 2006 movie Barbed Wire Kiss. The director, Benny Profane, had asked to use one of Smith's Gravity's Rainbow paintings in the movie and gave Smith a small role in exchange.

In February 2019, due to allegations of sexual abuse by several women including his former wife, adult industry performer Mandy Morbid, Wizards of the Coast announced that they would be removing all references to Smith from the print and digital editions of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition, OneBookShelf announced it would no longer work with Smith, and he was also banned from attending Gen Con. Smith denied the accusations and filed defamation lawsuits against Morbid and other people. His defamation suit against Gen Con was dismissed in May 2023 after Smith deliberately violated discovery rules by failing to respond to Gen Con's requests, a decision upheld by the Washington Court of Appeals in October 2024.

Personal life

Smith lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York until October 2007, when he moved to Los Angeles. He was married to adult industry performer Mandy Morbid. Smith describes himself as an anarchist.

Bibliography

Art

  • Zak Smith: Pictures of Girls (New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2005).
  • Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow (graphic representation of novel/illustration) (Portland, Oregon: Tin House Books, 2006).
  • We Did Porn: Memoir and Drawings. (Portland, Oregon: Tin House Books, 2009).
  • The Worst Breakfast (illustrator, with writer China Miéville, Akashic Books, 2016).

RPGs

  • Vornheim: The Complete City Kit (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, 2011).
  • A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, 2014).
  • Death Frost Doom (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, 2014).
  • Maze of the Blue Medusa (with Patrick Stuart, Satyr Press, 2016).
  • Frostbitten & Mutilated (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, 2018).

Awards

::data[format=table]

YearAwardCategoryWork
2011ENNIE Awardsurl=http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/about-us/2011-nominees-and-winners/title=2011 Noms and Winners
Diehard GameFANfirst=Alexlast=Lucardurl=http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/12/26/diehard-gamefans-2011-tabletop-gaming-awards/
2012IndieCadeurl=https://indiegamereviewer.com/indiecade-2012-indie-game-award-winners-the-complete-list/title=IndieCade 2012 Indie Game Award Winners - The Complete List
2014Indie RPG Awardsurl=http://www.indie-rpg-awards.com/2014/best_production.shtmltitle=Best Production, 2014
2015ENNIE Awardsurl=http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/about-us/2014-ennie-awards-nominees/2015-ennie-award-winners/title=2015 ENnie Award Winners
Gold for "Best Setting" + "Best Writing"
2016ENNIE Awardsurl=http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/about-us/2014-ennie-awards-nominees/2015-ennie-award-winners/2016-ennie-award-winners/title=2016 ENnie Award Winners
Gold for "Best Electronic Book"
2018ENNIE Awardsurl=http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/about-us/2018-nominations/title=2018 ENnie Noms and Winners
Gold for "Best Monster/Adversary"
::

References

References

  1. "Zak Smith".
  2. (14 January 2021). "Here's to Howard - Montecito". Montecito Journal.
  3. (1 May 2002). "Zak Smith". Artforum.
  4. Yablonsky, Linda. "Punk Portraitist: On the Backs of Photographs, Zak Smith Plays with Slick Surfaces to Make Likenesses of Surprising Detail and Depth." ''ARTNews'', vol. 102, no. 8, September 2003, p. 96.
  5. Kley, Elisabeth. "Zak Smith." ''ARTNews'', vol. 104, no. 11, Dec. 2005, pp. 146–47.
  6. "What is it like to be painted by Zak Smith? – The Weekly Footnote".
  7. Miranda, Carolina A.. (July 4, 2014). "Moment of Friday: Zak Smith picks the metal-est song in the world". [[LA Times]].
  8. Woods, Chris. "Gravity's Rainbow Illustrated: One Picture for Every Page." ''Chicago Review'', vol. 53, no. 2, Autumn, 2007, pp. 202-205,245''.''
  9. https://rpggeek.com/rpgdesigner/39331/zak-smith-i
  10. (2015). "2015 ENnie Award Winners".
  11. "2016 ENnie Award Winners".
  12. (2018). "2018 ENnie Noms and Winners".
  13. (September 7, 2011). "Notes on Raunch". Bookforum.
  14. Kane, Kimberly. (October 16, 2012). "Zak Loves Mandy". [[Vice (magazine).
  15. Hall, Charlie. (February 20, 2019). "Dungeons & Dragons publisher scrubs contributor from handbook amid abuse allegations".
  16. Veale, Kevin. (December 4, 2020). "Gaming the Dynamics of Online Harassment". [[Palgrave Macmillan]].
  17. Gray, Mandi. (March 2024). "Suing for Silence". [[University of British Columbia Press]].
  18. (April 18, 2023). "The Privilege of Play: A History of Hobby Games, Race, and Geek Culture". NYU Press.
  19. (February 19, 2019). "'Dungeons & Dragons' Releases Statement on Zak Smith". [[ComicBook.com]].
  20. (February 13, 2019). "The Statement".
  21. (June 5, 2024). "Wash. Appeals Judge Grills Game Artist Who Ignored Court Orders - Law360". [[Law360]].
  22. (October 2, 2024). "Game Artist's Discovery Violations Doom Gen Con Suit - Law360". [[Law360]].
  23. Trice, Emilie. (October 15, 2007). "Anarchy in the U.K.". [[artnet]].de.
  24. Tsjeng, Zing. (July 28, 2014). "Stoya selects Zak Smith". [[Dazed & Confused (magazine)#Dazed Digital.
  25. Hellings, David Paul. (September 13, 2015). "An Interview with Zak S".
  26. "2011 Noms and Winners".
  27. Lucard, Alex. (December 26, 2011). "Diehard GameFAN's 2011 Tabletop Gaming Awards".
  28. (October 5, 2012). "IndieCade 2012 Indie Game Award Winners - The Complete List".
  29. (2014). "Best Production, 2014".
  30. Helton, Christopher. (August 1, 2015). "Bleeding Gen Con: Two Of The Best Four Days In Gaming".

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20th-century-american-painters21st-century-american-painters21st-century-american-male-artistsalt-pornamerican-male-paintersamerican-male-pornographic-film-actorsartists-from-syracuse,-new-yorkindie-role-playing-game-designersliving-peopleamerican-erotic-artists20th-century-american-male-artistscooper-union-alumniyale-university-alumniskowhegan-school-of-painting-and-sculpture-alumniyear-of-birth-missing-(living-people)1976-births