“I hope viewers see in my works worlds full of discovery. Worlds where bold marks, text, collage, and paint coalesce into whirling scenes of contemplation and play.”
For over 20 years, the American artist Anthony Smith Jr. has worked with collage, painting, drawing, and mixed media to create artworks that engage viewers with conversations surrounding race, sexuality, politics, religion and ritualistic storytelling. Upon viewing, Smith invites everyone to play and discovery, forming their own connections from the familiar images woven into his pieces.
Anthony Smith received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Amherst College (1999) and an M.F.A. in Painting from the University of Michigan (2001). He’s showed nationally in “From Here on Out” at Gallery Marzen/ IAG in Madison Wisconsin in 2020, the “Mid-Atlantic Painting 2016” exhibit at the University of Mary Washington Fredericksburg, VA in 2016; the 2010 “Sailing the Barbarous Coast” which traveled to Boston and Amherst, Ma and Milwaukee, Wi; and notably the 2008 “Runaway” show at the University of Texas Pan-American Gallery in McAllen TX for which he received a Puffin Foundation grant.
In 2022 he will also exhibit in a solo show “Secret Worlds” at the Blair Academy in Blairstown, NJ. Additionally, he has received a Project Stream grant from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts for the Pilot series of paintings exhibited in the show Dreadnaught at the ArtsQuest SteelStacks Center in Bethlehem, PA in 2018. Internationally he’s shown in the “Tribute to Michelangelo” show at CrisolArts Gallery in Barcelona, Spain in 2013, and in various Pennsylvania exhibitions including at the Bethlehem House Gallery in 2016, 2019 and 2022, and in “The New Normal” at Moravian University’s Payne Gallery in 2021. He’s been reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Detroit Free Press, The Ann Arbor News and the Artist’s Magazine.
Smith has taught at such institutions as the University of Michigan, Parsons, Princeton and Maryland Institute College of Art. Additionally he served as artist-in-residence at the National Academy of Design (2006 – 2008), and at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT in 2016 and 2022. Most recently he’s taught at Muhlenberg College in Allentown Pa (2014- 2018) and currently teaches Drawing and Painting at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, PA. He lives in Allentown Pa with a studio at the Banana Factory Art Center in Bethlehem, PA where he also serves as the artist-liaison for the residential artist progra
Anthony Smith Jr. 