The 85-year-old has fought for his place as an artist, capturing the complexities of the Black experience on canvas, in ways that provoke and inspire
At 85 years of age, Arvie Smith is arguably in his finest form ever. The artist retired from teaching in 2014, which allowed him focus on his art full-time, and after that followed a 2017 Governor’s Art Award from the state of Oregon, a 2018 honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the Pacific Northwest School of Art, and a showing at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Now he is taking on New York: Smith recently exhibited in the US art capital for the first time as a part of the Art Dealers Association of America’s annual art show. “I’m flexing my muscles for sure,” he said, while discussing his work during a break in the action. “I want to engage and create a dialogue with the audience, a dialogue about the experience of Black people, the Black experience.”
