When Arvie Smith moved from rural East Texas to South Central Los Angeles, he was the only kid who didn’t know how to roller skate or ride a bike—but he did own a horse named Ball growing up. This transition from the Jim Crow South to the urban center of Los Angeles is the subject of Smith’s new exhibition “Crossing Clear Creek,” opening February 8 at moniquemeloche. Smith’s horse appears in the titular painting, along with a merry-go-round horse he painted and helped restore in his home city of Portland, Oregon.
