Mark T Smith / Slide show presentation overview / 2013

2. MARK T SMITH
1968 -

12. ABSOLUT SMITH
1996

14. EARLY DAYS
“All children are artists. The problem is how to
remain an artist once he grows up.”
Pablo Picasso

17. LIFE
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
Hannibal Smith

20. PAINTING
“Art can never really show us the exterior world.
All it shows us is our own soul. The one world of
which we have any real cognizance…it is art, and
art alone that reveals us to ourselves.”
Oscar Wilde

22. ARTIST STATEMENT
“My work is a neo-classic counter-revolution to the emotionally vapid and endlessly self- referencing
post-modern thought and artwork. The artwork exhibits the classic skills of drawing and painting with
the balance of a modern mindset. I have always had a primary interest in the tactile experience of
making beautiful expressions in the traditional forms of printmaking, sculpture, painting and drawing. My
images are archetypal in nature, universal in appeal and message. My desire is to place the future of Art
under the influence of: Beauty, Skill and Revelation. Throughout my career I have carefully sought out
opportunities to display and apply artwork in a manner that will reach as many people as possible, while
maintaining tight control on the quality and content of the artwork. I have spent my career participating
in the numerically smaller but more influential circles of the galleries and museums; however, I firmly
believe that artwork has a primary function to ennoble the public. In order to create an awareness and
appreciation of the Arts, Art must be connected to our daily lives and must find applications that
engenders understanding and implants the desire to have the Arts as a permanent partner in the
everyday experience of our lives”.
Mark T Smith

33. MEOW
Figure Drawing

39. SCLUPTURE
“Sculpture is the final frontier for a painter and draftsman - finally to
reach out into the world. The newness of the experience is
intoxicating, the challenges exciting and fresh. The first baby-steps
into this world return me to the feeling that I had as a very young
child making art. I am approaching this new expression with a
renewed love of the creative process, the tabula rasa of a wise child
and have fallen in love again with Arts' seductive forces”.
Mark T Smith

47. EXHIBITIONS

53. M A R K T. S M I T H
Exhibiting at
paintings | sculpture | works on paper
Hanneke Beaumont
Chuck Close
Salvador Dalí
David Drebin
Helen Frankenthaler
Frederick Hart
Jasper Johns
Roy Lichtenstein
Joan Miró
Louise Nevelson
Pablo Picasso
Robert Rauschenberg
James Rosenquist
M a r k T. S m i t h
Frank Stella
Robert Swedroe
Andy Warhol
To m W e s s e l m a n n
Wood Bull, Mixed-Media on Canvas, 40” x 32”
24667 Cedar Road | Cleveland Ohio | 216.382.7800
c o n t e s s a g a l l e r y. c o m

64. WASHINGTON DC
“One of the penalties for refusing to
participate in politics is that you end up
being governed by your inferiors”.
Plato

73. SKETCHBOOK
“A sketch is better than a long speech”
Napoleon

85. PASSION

87. IRON MISTRESS

91. COMMISSIONS

103. PRINTMAKING

111. DRAWING
“Drawing. This is where every idea, project, thought, or expression starts
for me. Drawing is the most direct, raw manner to present an idea. It can
contain the simplest or most complex ideas. It can take the viewer on a
direct or indirect journey; it can be a map to a destination or the
destination itself. Drawing for me is as natural as breathing, as joyful and
satisfying as sex, as mysterious as love and as transcendent as faith. For each
subject matter that I approach, I always start with a drawing”.
Mark T Smith

126. MIAMI

129. NEW YORK CITY

131. “Art must offer something greater then mere
criticism to land it somewhere closer to the soul, to
the place where true art climbs inside of you and
illuminates something within. Art should leave you
breathless, amazed, wondering, perhaps even terrified
or furious - art should bring you somewhere
miraculous within yourself - somewhere you may not
have ever known existed”.
Mark T Smith

132. MARK T SMITH
www.marktsmith.com

134. J Murphy
jay@marktsmith.com