Contemporary Art
Paper Smiley
Jimmy Paintz (b. 1988)
Jimmy Pierce, known professionally as Jimmy Paintz, is a Los Angeles-based contemporary urban artist of Filipino and Mulatto heritage. Since launching his professional art career in 2015, he has become internationally recognised for his iconic smiley face imagery and vibrant, paint-splattered aesthetic that bridges the worlds of street art and fine art.
This Paper Smiley is one of Paintz's most collectible formats — a hand-cut circular work on paper, layered with his signature splashing and splattering technique using predominantly spray paint (approximately 90% of his medium), combined with acrylic accents. Each Paper Smiley is individually crafted over one to three days: the paper is first cut into circles, then receives a background paint layer, followed by an abstract splatter composition, and finally the hand-drawn smile and the artist's signature.
WHY IS JIMMY PAINTZ SIGNIFICANT?
Paintz's work carries a deliberate message of happiness, freedom, and hope — what he calls "Seeds of Happiness." His art has been exhibited from Los Angeles to Tokyo (solo show "LET'S MAKE TOKYO SMILE"), and he has collaborated with Dapper Labs on a Web3 art collection of 8,888 custom spray-painted smiley faces. His celebrity collectors include Nobu Matsuhisa, The Game, Dave Navarro, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. In 2025, his "Character Revelations" exhibition at Atelier on Sunset (Mondrian LA) marked a significant evolution in his celebrated body of work.
WHAT MAKES THIS PIECE EXCEPTIONAL?
Paintz draws inspiration from Jackson Pollock's action painting, Basquiat's raw energy, and Takashi Murakami's joyful character-based imagery. His Paper Smileys transform something universally simple — the smiley face — into a complex, layered artwork through his mastery of spray paint technique and colour composition. Having created over 200,000 smiles throughout his career, each individual Paper Smiley remains a unique, hand-signed original that embodies the artist's mission to spread positivity through art.
Provenance & Details
The iconic smiley face, a seemingly simple symbol of happiness, has a surprisingly corporate origin. It was created in 1963 by American graphic designer Harvey Ball for the State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, Massachusetts. The company was looking for a way to boost employee morale after a series of difficult mergers and acquisitions. Ball’s design, a bright yellow circle with two dots for eyes and a simple upturned curve for a mouth, was an instant success. He was paid a mere $45 for his creation and never trademarked the design, a decision that allowed the smiley to proliferate freely and become a global phenomenon.
By the early 1970s, the smiley had been co-opted by the counter-culture movement, transforming from a corporate symbol into an emblem of optimism and anti-establishment sentiment. Philadelphia-based brothers Bernard and Murray Spain famously commercialized the design, pairing it with the phrase “Have a Happy Day,” and selling millions of buttons, posters, and other merchandise. The smiley’s simple, universal appeal made it a perfect fit for the Pop Art movement, which celebrated everyday objects and mass-produced imagery. It has since been endlessly reinterpreted by artists and designers, and its influence can be seen in the ubiquitous emojis that populate our digital communication today.
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