Anthony Smith Jr.

Works in Bethlehem, PA

BIO

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). Smith also studied wood-block printmaking in Kyoto, Japan at Kyoto Seika University in 2001. He has 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.

Anthony has recently showed in the Bethlehem House Gallery at their "Holiday Show". Notable exhibits include the the “Mid-Atlantic Painting 2016” exhibit at the University of Mary Washington Fredericksburg, Virginia the “Tribute to Michelangelo” show at CrisolArts Gallery in Barcelona, Spain in 2013, the Art Now: Painting 2015 exhibit at the Ann Arbor Art Center in Ann Arbor Michigan, the 2014 “Artist Chain Reaction Competition” at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx, the 2013 Fuse Arts Infrastructure Cigar Factory and Schoen's Building shows in Allentown PA, and the 2010 “Sailing the Barbarous Coast” show (which traveled to the New Art Center in Newton, MA, University Galleries, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA and the Walker Point Art Center, Milwaukee, WI). Also notable was the 2008 “Runaway” show at the University of Texas Pan-American Gallery in McAllen TX for which he received a Puffin Foundation grant. Anthony has taught at such institutions as the University of Michigan, Parsons, Princeton and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland. Smith served as an artist-in-residence at the National Academy of Design (2006 – 2008), and at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont in 2016. Most recently he has taught at Lehigh University in Bethlehem Pa (2012), and as a visiting artist and adjunct professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown Pa (2014- 2018). Additionally, Anthony received a Project Stream grant from the Lehigh Valley Arts Council (2016) to complete the Dreadnought series of paintings. He lives in Allentown Pennsylvania with a studio at the Banana Factory Art Center in Bethlehem, PA.

You’ll like Anthony if: you enjoy riddles

"I make artwork that’s filled with rich dense spaces. These spaces coalesce into vibrant worlds where I often play out moral, political or philosophical fantasies using calligraphic gestures that feel vaguely calligraphic. I often layer and then erase work I’ve spent hours producing simply to capture the ghost of what came before. I tell stories. I tell stories within stories. I tell stories that are not always meant to be perceived by the viewer. These are my secret work. I always leave a morsel that viewers can grab hold of be it a friendly gesture, appealing color, or familiar image that, like breadcrumbs, I hope leads the viewer on a journey of discovery. I make overwhelming work because the world for me is overwhelming. Then from time to time, and as a respite from the noise, I paint over it all with a happy landscape which thinly masks the cacophony just beneath the surface."