Ed Smith (sculptor)

Smith was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. While attending Cardinal Gibbons School, Smith found his first introduction to the world of fine arts, and was heavily influenced and encouraged by Francis Katz. His early paintings utilized very thick layering of paint adding up to multiple inches thick in search of imagery of the figure.

After graduating, Smith leaves Baltimore for New York to attend the Pratt Institute. Studying in NYC helped advance Smith’s skills as a painter but he was becoming frustrated with this medium that limited him. After Pratt, Smith pursued his graduate degree at Columbia University where he was finally introduced to sculpture. While at Columbia, Smith was heavily influenced by, art historian Kirk Varnedoe (1946–2003) and British sculptor William Tucker. Varnedoe, a passionate scholar of the nineteenth-century French sculptor Auguste Rodin, embedded in Smith a fascination with Rodin that allowed for his developing transition to sculpture. Varnedoe posed important questions to Smith about the function of sculpture. Smith’s relationship with William Tucker was more involved as Smith worked on and off for Tucker over the course of many years. Tucker impacted Smith heavily as this introduction changed the course of Smith’s artistic understanding of sculpture. Sculpture forced him to consider things never addressed in painting. Creating sculpture for Smith is like an intimate relationship, one that requires time, commitment, and physical touch. Sculpture as a medium was everything Smith was looking for, a work of art that is just as physical and visually interesting as the human form.

Smith’s style of sculpture and prints appear raw and powerful stressing the wonderment of the fragment. Despite the works appearing as unfinished fragments, they are not unfinished but thoughtfully composed representations of the essence of the human form having undergone the ravages of time and man. Mythology is the most prominent theme demonstrated in Smith’s works. Smith credits this fascination with Greek mythology, art, and epic literature to be a result of an early emphasis on the importance of reading, where he found himself studying the Greeks from a very young age, and a search for meaning in the chaos of life. Smith’s sculptures are representations of the human form that forces his viewer to thoughtfully engage with the work and narrative sequence. Creating his figures to be “distilled” but understandable, they act as a metaphor for the conflict in human life. Smith’s work is thoughtfully complex as he creates various forms that appear hopeful yet troubled, offering the possibility of triumph but not a guarantee. It reflects the heroic nature found in one’s own determination to find a resolution and redemption. The concept of heroism is extremely prominent as the inspiration for the majority of his work. Smith sees the artist as a solitary heroic figure, that accepts the responsibility and challenges that come with creation.

After graduating from Columbia University, he moved to Vermont by the influence of Tucker to work at Bennington College with Brower Hatcher. After this Smith taught at various schools, returning to New York City where he taught at the New York Studio School, Parsons and others. Smith was hired to teach at Chautauqua School of the Arts. Smith’s next position is at Bard College, at a time when the college was staffed with a significant number of Guggenheim and McArthur fellows like William Tucker, Elizabeth Murray, Judy Pfaff, and Jake Berthot among others. Moving to Marist College and supported by the school’s visionary President, Dennis Murray, Smith was afforded a similar sympathetic freedom which allowed his work to flourish. Smith has been a Professor of Art, Director of the Marist Art Gallery and the Director of Marist Venice Biennale Program as well as a visiting Artist, Lecturer, Professor, and Distinguished Visiting Artist at many institutions in the US and abroad. Awards and honors include Awards for Teaching Excellence, National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts; Teaching Excellence at Marist College; Ford Foundation Grant; and others.

• https://edsmithfineart.com/
• Smith, Ed. A Grand Battle, Songs of Heroism: A Suite of Sculptures by Ed Smith. Marist College Art Gallery, 2000.
• https://www.marist.edu/communication-arts/faculty/ed-smith
• https://www.rutlandherald.com/the-magnificence-of-humankind-bronze-sculptures-of-ed-smith/article_80879eb4-fd1b-5228-9d68-cb87e6b361df.html
• https://www.marist.edu/-/news-forms-and-figures-exhibition-by-professor-ed-smith