DWIGHT SMITH AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST MIXED MEDIA 11X14 NCA 1995 DETROIT LEGEND

Description: DWIGHT SMITH AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST MIXED MEDIA 11X14 INCHES NCA 1995 DETROIT LEGEND. LIMITED TO 100 UNIQUE WORKS THAT WERE PRODUCED CFOR THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ARTISTS OF WHICH THIS IS 62 "I consider myself an abstract expressionist artist. Currently an Associate Professor of Visual Art in the Department of Fine and Performing Art at Fayetteville State University and the director of the Rosenthal Art Gallery at the university. I am an exhibition curator, arts administrator, founder of the Ellington-White Contemporary Art Gallery in downtown Fayetteville. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, I have lived with my family in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My visual practice involves a continued investigation in the art making processes of painting, drawing and mixed media collage. The works celebrate life, family histories and tributes to artists I admire. I continue to express certain social realities concerning the world around me, while exploring aesthetic qualities of being black in America and addressing the literal ideas of contemporary blackness in abstraction. Elements from African sculptural art, designs, Adinkra symbols and fabric motifs still act as a catalyst to bring forth the artistic voice in my work, as a nonrepresentational artist. The works that I’ve created during the past two decades have evolved to contain a variety of material substances and collage elements. Sticks, plaster, textures of gesso and paint, have built up surface textures to develop tension between the materials, the images and visual message. Painting with thick gobs of paint on paper or canvas, the symbols in the work and their literal meanings became more abstracted over time." Smith, Dwight. (active Fayetteville, NC, 2011) Bibliography and Exhibitions MONOGRAPHS AND SOLO EXHIBITIONS: Ann Arbor (MI). Center for Afro-American and African Studies, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. DWIGHT SMITH. 1997. Solo exhibition. Ann Arbor (MI). Center for Afro-American and African Studies, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. DWIGHT SMITH. 1992. Solo exhibition. Ann Arbor (MI). Jon Onye Lockard Gallery of Art, Center for Afro-American and African Studies, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. DWIGHT SMITH: Reflections: 1976-2000. 2000. Solo exhibition. Aurillac (France). Le Manufacture. DWIGHT SMITH: Peintures. 2000. Solo exhibition. Aurillac (France). L'Escalier. DWIGHT SMITH: Peintures. 1999. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. DWIGHT SMITH: Conversations and Reflections. 2004. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). Detroit Repertory Theatre Gallery. DWIGHT SMITH:. 1988. Solo exhibition. Curated by Gilda Snowden. Detroit (MI). Hartford Memorial Baptist Church. DWIGHT SMITH. 1995. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). Jo's Gallery. DWIGHT SMITH: Personal Journeys. 2004. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). Metropolitan Center for the Creative Arts. DWIGHT SMITH: Manifestations of An Ancestral Legacy. 1995. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). Metropolitan Center for the Creative Arts. DWIGHT SMITH: Reclamations of Symbolism: New Paintings. 1995. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). National Conference of Artists Gallery. DWIGHT SMITH: Ancestral Dialogue. 1993. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). Northwest Community Gallery. DWIGHT SMITH: Recent Works. 2002. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). Plymouth Congregational Church. DWIGHT SMITH. 1985. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). The Ellington-White Project. DWIGHT SMITH: Looking Inward. 1998. Solo exhibition. Detroit (MI). Your Heritage House. DWIGHT SMITH: Adinkra Risings. September 1-30, 1987. Solo exhibition. Checklist. Single sheet. Fayetteville (NC). Art and Soul Gallery. DWIGHT SMITH: Personal Journeys. 2007. Solo exhibition of paintings and mixed media images Oak Park (MI). Oak Park Library. DWIGHT SMITH: Adinkra Risings. 1992. Solo exhibition. GENERAL BOOKS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS: ANN ARBOR (MI). University of Michigan Museum of Art. The Dream Keepers: A Celebration of Afro-American Art. February 2-28, 1988. Group exhibition. Included: Reginald Gammon, Dwight Smith, et al. BIRMINGHAM (MI). Desalle Community Gallery, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center. Capturing the Essence of the African American Experience Through its Artists. October 9-31, 1998. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith, Gilda Snowden. BROOKLYN (NY). Skylight Gallery, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. Gateways to Africa. 2001. Group NCA National exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith. DETROIT (MI). Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Mining Our Collections: Selected Works of Art from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. November 15, 2006-January 21, 2007. Group exhibition. Artists who, during some part of their careers, lived and worked in metropolitan Detroit. Included: Dwight Smith, Joye Opoku-Ofei, Jocelyn Rainey, Alan Colding, Vernard Rubens, and the late artists LeRoy Foster and Carl Owens. DETROIT (MI). JRainey Gallery. Dwight Smith & Michael Ragins. February-March 8, 2002. Exhibition of oil pastels on paper by Smith and wrapped twine and acrylic paintings /sculpture by Ragins. DETROIT (MI). JRainey Gallery. Dwight Smith / Michael Raggins. 2002. Two-person exhibition. DETROIT (MI). National Conference of Artists Gallery. Gallery Selections. 1998. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith. DETROIT (MI). National Conference of Artists Gallery. Poets Voice. October 10-November 12, 1998. Group exhibition by Michigan artists creating works based on the poetry of Naomi Long Madgett. Artists included: Earl Jackson, Gilda Snowden, Shirley Woodson, Donald Calloway, Sabrina Nelson, Dwight Smith. DETROIT (MI). Scarab Club. The Art of Africa and its Heritage. 1998. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith. DETROIT (MI). The Ellington-White Project. We've Come This Far. 2000. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith. DETROIT (MI). Wayne County Council for the Arts. Visual Voices. April, 1991. Group exhibition. Included: Arianne King Comer, Hugh Grannum, Al Hinton, Arianne King-Comer, Ruth Lampkins, Roger Martin, Neal, Reginald Gammon, Bill Sanders, Dwight Smith, Shirley Woodson. FAYETTEVILLE (NC). Arts Council of Fayetteville and Cumberland County. Distinguished Visions, Timeless Tradition. January 23-March 21, 2009. Group exhibition of African American work in Fayetteville collections. Included: Elizabeth Catlett, Ernie Barnes, John Biggers, Betye Saar, Hughie Lee-Smith, Mima McMillan, Dwight Smith, and many others. FAYETTEVILLE (NC). Fayetteville Museum of Art,. Voices: An Artists Book and Portfolio II. 2007. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith. LANSING (MI). State Capitol Rotunda. 4 from 4 Artists. 1989. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith. MT. CLEMENS (MI). Arts Center. Perspectives In Black. 1983. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith, et al. MT. CLEMENS (MI). Arts Center. Perspectives in Contemporary Black Art. January, 1985. Group exhibition. Included: Donna Bruton, Michael Gardner, Ruth Lampkins, Asheber Macharaia, Harold Neal, Bill Sanders, J. Arthur Sanders, Yolanda Sharpe, Dwight Smith, Gilda Snowden, Anthony Williams, and Shirley Ann Woodson. NEW YORK (NY). Westbeth Gallery. Conversing in Words and Images. 1993. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith. OAKLAND (CA). Grand Oak Gallery. New Works: Anitra Blayton and Dwight Smith. 1985. Two-person exhibition. Curated by Ben Hazard. PHILADELPHIA (PA). Brandywine Workshop. Detroit: Contemporary Works on Paper. February 29-April 26, 2008. Group exhibition. Curated by Camille Ann Brewer. Included: Shirley Woodson, Ibn Pori Pitts, Jide Aje, Valerie Fair, Asha Walidah, Robbie Best, Shirley Freeman, Jocelyn Rainey, Anita Bates, Gregory Johnson, Senghor Reid, Raymond Wells, Allie McGhee, Richard Lewis, Gilda Snowden, M. Saffell Gardner, Ora Carter, Marvalisa Coley, Dwight Smith, Bill Sanders, Anthony Bacon, Lionell Hurst and Jason Phillips. SAGINAW (MI). Saginaw Museum of Art. Black Artists Invitational. January, 1988. Group exhibition. Included: Reginald Gammon, Al Hinton, Lester L. Johnson, Ruth Lampkins, Bill Sanders, Dwight Smith, Gilda Snowden, James Watkins, Peter Williams, Shirley Woodson. Invitation card. TRAVERSE CITY (MI). Traverse City Arts Council. Image Makers. 1993. Group exhibition. Included: Dwight Smith. WASHINGTON (DC). Jackson Fine Arts Gallery. 32 Current. May, 2011. Group exhibition. Included: E.J. Montgomery, Samella Lewis, Leon Hicks, Margo Humphrey, Victor Ekpuk, Shirley Woodson, Anyta Thomas, Valerie Fai, Renée Stout, Ray Wells, Varnette Honeywood, Clarissa Sligh, Jide Aje, Kimberly Camp, Jocelyn Rainey, Gilda Snowden, Bill Hutson, Michael Platt, Charles Burwell, Floyd Coleman, Antonio Puri, Roslyn Cambridge, Dwight Smith, Michael Massenburg, Michael Harris, Joyce Wellman, Alonzo Davis, Senghor Reid, Neshormeh Lindo, Donald Bernard, Cynthia Farrell Johnson and Wesley Clark. I consider myself an abstract expressionist artist. Currently an Associate Professor of Visual Art in the Department of Fine and Performing Art at Fayetteville State University and the director of the Rosenthal Art Gallery at the university. I am an exhibition curator, arts administrator, founder of the Ellington-White Contemporary Art Gallery in downtown Fayetteville. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, I have lived with my family in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My visual practice involves a continued investigation in the art making processes of painting, drawing and mixed media collage. The works celebrate life, family histories and tributes to artists I admire. I continue to express certain social realities concerning the world around me, while exploring aesthetic qualities of being black in America and addressing the literal ideas of contemporary blackness in abstraction. Elements from African sculptural art, designs, Adinkra symbols and fabric motifs still act as a catalyst to bring forth the artistic voice in my work, as a nonrepresentational artist. The works that I’ve created during the past two decades have evolved to contain a variety of material substances and collage elements. Sticks, plaster, textures of gesso and paint, have built up surface textures to develop tension between the materials, the images and visual message. Painting with thick gobs of paint on paper or canvas, the symbols in the work and their literal meanings became more abstracted over time. Short Edited Resume ( full vita available on request) Education MFA, Studio Art 2012 Lesley University College of Art and Design (LUCAD), Cambridge, MA MA, 1992 Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan BFA, Painting 1976 Wayne State University, - Major: Painting - Minor: Art History, Academic Employment 2008 – Present Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC Selected Solo Exhibitions 2017 OPEN LETTERS: Works on Paper by Dwight Smith, Ellington-White Contemporary Art Gallery, Fayetteville, NC OBSERVATIONS: Mixed Media Works from Dwight Smith, Hibbing Community College, Hibbing, MN 2016 Dwight Smith: An Artist’s Approach to Discovery, Gallery 208, Fayetteville, NC 2014 OBSERVATIONS: Mixed Media Works from Dwight Smith, Ellington-White Contemporary Art Gallery, Fayetteville, NC 2013 New works by Dwight Smith, National Conference of Artists Michigan Chapter Gallery, Detroit, MI 2012 New works by Dwight Smith, MFA Paintings, Rosenthal Gallery, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC 2009 Dwight Smith, South Eastern Community College, Whiteville, NC 2008 Dwight Smith, Paintings, Rosenthal Gallery, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC The Artwork of Dwight Smith, Paintings and Mixed Media Images, Fayetteville Museum of Art Gallery Gallery 208, Fayetteville, NC 2007 Personal Journeys, Paintings and Mixed Media Images, Art and Soul Gallery, Fayetteville, NC 2004 Personal Journeys, Jo's Gallery, Detroit, Michigan Conversations and Reflections: Paintings, Collages and Mixed Media Images The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan 2002 Recent works, the Northwest Community Gallery, Detroit, Michigan 2000 Peintures, Le Manufacture, Aurillac, France Reflections: 1976 – 2000, the Jon Onye Lockard Gallery of Art Center for Afro-American and African Studies, U of M, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1999 Peintures, L’Escalier, Aurillac, France Selected Group Exhibitions 2017 Silver Maples: Painting, Collage, Printmaking, Mixed Media, Photography, Gallery 100, Chelsea, MI White Masks by David C. Driskell and OBSERVATIONS: Mixed Media Works from Dwight Smith, National Conference of Artists Michigan Chapter Gallery, Detroit, MI 2016 The Drawing Exhibition, Ellington-White Contemporary, Fayetteville, NC Transformation 2: Artful Recycling, Arts Council Fayetteville/Cumberland County, Fayetteville, NC Faculty Biennial Exhibition, Rosenthal Art Gallery, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC NAAHBCU National Exhibition: Into the New Millennium: New Media Abstraction and Identity Politics, Rosenthal Art Gallery, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC. 2015 Earthy Abstractions, Ellington-White Contemporary Art Gallery and Arts Council Fayetteville/Cumberland County, Fayetteville, NC A Transformation: Artful Recycling, Arts Council Fayetteville/Cumberland County, Fayetteville, NC LUCAD MFA Alumni Biennial, Warehouse XI, Somerville, MA. NAAHBCU National Exhibition: Afro Futurism, Tubman African-American Museum, Macon, GA. Biennial Faculty Art Exhibition, Rosenthal Gallery Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, N.C. Collectors Exhibition – Perspectives: The Artist, The Work and The Collector, Ellington-White Contemporary Art Gallery, Fayetteville, NC 2014 FORECAST: OVERFLOW, Brown & Juanita Ford Art Gallery, Wayne County Community College, Detroit MI Mediating Relevance: The Politics of Gender, Arts Council Fayetteville/Cumberland County, Fayetteville, NC Fayetteville Contemporary – 1st Annual Juried Competition of Contemporary Art, Fayetteville, NC 2013 Earthy Abstraction, Works by Jack Kehoe, Kipley Meyer, Brian Rust and Dwight Smith Madison Artists Guild, Madison GA 2012 Biennial Faculty Art Exhibition, Rosenthal Gallery Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, N.C. 2011 ACUMMULATION: a Contemporary Collage Invitational, Arts Council of Fayetteville Cumberland County, North Carolina 2010 Visual Pleasures, Fayetteville Art Guild Gallery ONE13, Fayetteville, N.C. juried FSU Faculty Exhibition, Rosenthal Gallery Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, N.C. UNC Faculty Exhibition, Cape Fear Studios, Fayetteville, N.C. 2009 Creating/Making, Fayetteville Art Guild Gallery ONE13, Fayetteville, N.C. juried Distinguished Visions, Timeless Traditions, The Arts Center of Fayetteville/Cumberland County, 2008 A Time for Angels, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C. Creation, The Arts Center of Cumberland County, Fayetteville, N.C. juried Imagine, Art Guild of Fayetteville, Green Light Gallery, Fayetteville, N.C. juried National Black Fine Art Show, The Puck Building, SOHO, New York, NY Contemporary Works on Paper, Brandywine Center for the Visual Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2007 Voices: An Artists Book and Portfolio II: An Artists Book, Fayetteville Museum of Art, Fayetteville, National Black Fine Art Show, The Puck Building, SOHO, New York, NY Works On Paper, The Jackson Gallery, Bryant Street, NW, Washington, D.C. City Images: Environmental Concerns, Art & Soul Gallery, Fayetteville, NC 2002 Dwight Smith /Michael Raggins, The jRainey Gallery, Detroit, Michigan 2001 Gateway to Africa: NCA National Exhibition, Skylight Gallery, New York, NY 2000 We’ve come this far - The Ellington-White Project Selected Recent Presentations: “Collecting Black Art,” Arts Council Fayetteville/Cumberland County, Fayetteville, NC, 2016 “Black Art: Abstraction, Social Change and Cultural Identity in My Postwar America,” Rosenthal Gallery, Fayetteville State University, 2012 “Black Art: Abstraction, Social Change and Cultural Identity in My Postwar America,” Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA , 2012 “Examining Interrelationships of Black Art on Social Change and Cultural Identity,” Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC, 2012 “The Evolution of the Black Image in Illustration and Fine Art,”The Friends of African and African American Art, The Arts Council Fayetteville/Cumberland County, NC, 2011 Public Collections: The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, Cape Fear Hospital, Fayetteville North Carolina, The Charles Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan, The National Conference of Artists Michigan Chapter, Detroit, Michigan, The Mott Foundation Collection of African American Art, Flint, Michigan, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan Corporate Art Collection, Osaka City Hall, Osaka, Japan, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY, Scripps College Museum, K Pamona, CA, Northwestern University Black Studies Library Collection, Evanston, IL, Sometimes you meet someone in one context and then rediscover them in a different one and it’s almost as if the Heaven’s part and light shines down on them. I met Dwight Smith through his impeccable volunteer work with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, which goes to show how deeply he cares about his chosen community of Fayetteville, since his hometown is Detroit. But in researching and talking with him about his painting, teaching at Fayetteville State University, and curation for Ellington-White Contemporary Art Gallery, it became much clearer why Smith is such a Guiding Light for his students, his audience, and all of us lucky enough to be blessed by his art and his wisdom. What does success mean to you? “I’m the kind of person that always makes a plan. I always tell my students that you’ll never be successful if you don’t have a plan and then you implement those plans. And once complete that plan, that’s success. Then I make another plan for myself. I think that in making those plans, I’m moderately successful because I simply have enjoyed all the things that have happened to me in this creative journey.” Smith has traveled the world thanks to his art–trips to France, Senegal, Surinam, and China are especially memorable–and been able to meet and work with many of the artists he admires. “I think I have a relatively successful career in life and I think it will just get even better. You never, never stop. You just keep working. You keep planning, you keep setting goals and you keep implementing and trying to make things happen that you want to see happen. Sometimes you have to do it for yourself. And sometimes there are other people who will see that you’re moving in a positive direction and they will help you do the kinds of things that you want to do.” How have you constructed the bridges of your career? A successful career in Detroit, a myriad of solo or group shows, a well-respected gallery, an assistant professor-ship, even being a guest at a White House reception to honor ten Black American Art Masters: are some of the high points of Smith’s career. He jokes, “I never thought that my artworks would be in some of the collections that they’re in, so I’m very humbled about that, and I’m just very surprised. I’ll be honest: I’m surprised. Wait, how did I get here?” “When you make a plan, you have to also say, okay, what do I need to accomplish to get to this goal, achieve the success. Sometimes those successes come to you because you’ve already done the preparation and you can then handle whatever comes. I belong to an organization called the National Conference of Artists, which is a national African-American art organization that I’m trying to get a chapter started here in North Carolina, and working with them and doing conferences and projects and planning, I have met so many artists, the people that I read about in books: David Driscoll, Elizabeth Catlett, Richmond Barthe, Samella Lewis, all these artists that we all look up to, I’ve met them all, sat down and had conversations with them. So it’s being prepared and being the kind of person that you understand your craft or learning about your craft, developing your craft, and you’re open to experiencing and receiving the information from those artists you look up to.” “Homage to Al Loving“, watercolor collage Who is in your artistic cohort? Smith looked up to and learned from several mentors, other artists who “when they see you in a crowd, they point to you and say, hey, how are you doing, what’s going on and catching up. Sometimes you may not see them for a year, and then you’ve not lost the beat when you see them again.” Black art history legend Shirley Woodson Reid who was just named the 2021 Kresge Eminent Artist. Jon Onye Lockard, who Smith said was “the kind of mentor that would tell you “That’s really good. Or Dwight don’t tell that to anybody else anymore.” Jon was very special to me.” Willis Bing Davis in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. David Driscoll, who passed away in 2020. Then there are artists he still wants to meet, like Mark Bradford, “who is just phenomenal in his abstraction and the work that he’s doing. So I have those people that I really like and have those people that I’d like to meet. Hopefully the universe will take me in that direction.” Smith curated an exhibition currently at the Arts Council and at Ellington-White Contemporary Art Gallery called Roots of Change, featuring 60 works by twenty-nine artists from a group he’s a member of called the National Alliance of Artists from HBCUs. “My ability to be able to create this exhibition with all of those wonderful artists is about being involved in these organizations. Becoming an associate professor at Fayetteville State University opened up avenues to these other historically black colleges and universities to continue to build my career and to help them build their careers. I am the kind of person where I will build you up while I’m building me up too. I never liked to do anything by myself. I like to take a group.” “My Soul Captures the Night Light and ignites the trail”, mixed media on canvas What change do you seek to make with your art, and how has that changed over time, if it has? “Well, when I started out, I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I just had the desire to make art. While I was at Wayne State University, it was steeped in German Abstract Expressionism, very popular at that time period. I really liked the abstract, because that’s a broad term that allows me to do a lot of different things, spread my wings a lot of different ways and use a lot of different materials.” Besides painting, Smith does drawings, collage, and has even worked in bronze casting. “Over the years, my work has developed into being work that deals with families, celebrations of artists, the whole sense of being a black male in America, a black artist in America.” As a teacher, both at University and in summer camps and classes, Smith carries specific principles he imparts to his students. “Your voice is what’s important. You need to be the new voice that we hear, that has something to say. You have the artist statements that you will write and those will evolve over time because your work will evolve over time. You may stay in the same lane, but the work becomes mature because you’ve worked out a lot of the technical aspects in it, the ideology, all the information that goes with it. So, I’m always evaluating my work and trying to improve my work and see what’s missing in my work, what holes do I need to fill to keep me being excited about making art. Although there are times that as an artist, that sometime you just have to make art, your brain will go: If I don’t get into the studio, I’m going to explode. You have to get to that studio and you have to work. It’s just who you are.”

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Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

End Time: 2024-12-16T18:11:30.000Z

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