George Smith: Recent Sculpture and Drawings

Sculpture and works on paper by African American artist George Smith were shown in conjunction with the anniversary celebration of the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) Department of African American Studies. Smith is a significant contemporary American artist with a rich exhibition, commission, and award history. Smith’s work references the aesthetic of the Dogon people of central Mali and, in his words, “the expressive power of African geometry.” His steel sculpture and oil on paper works evoke a powerful, spiritual quality that speaks of the contemporary experience while acknowledging a symbolic vocabulary of the past. He is a professor emeritus of art at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Among his accomplishments is the impressive steel sculpture, Journey to Sirius (1992) on public view in Dallas. Smith is a former resident of this area, who created a sculpture for the Utica Station of the Buffalo Metro Rail system in 1985. Artist and UB Professor James Pappas wrote a catalog essay.