Anthony Smith is a painter of exotic and rich fantasies which often coalesce into loose narratives or moral plays. He also paints placid and textured landscapes. As of late, Smith has been working on two main bodies of work, a series of paintings that re-contextualizes negative black tropes such as Mammy, Sambo, and Uncle Tom, reimagining these characters as secret agents or freedom fighters. Additionally, he is currently completing a series of 3 works exploring Black Jesus. He lives in Allentown with a studio at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem, PA.
Smith has shown nationally, most recently in the “Might Real/Queer Detroit Exhibit” and in “Telling Our Story” at the David Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park. Other places Smith’s work has been shown include the Bethlehem House Gallery in Bethlehem, PA, ROYGBIV Gallery in Columbus, OH, and at Soft Machine Gallery in Allentown, PA. He’s been reviewed in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Detroit Free Press to name a few. Additionally, Smith traveled in January 2023 to Senegal Africa as part of the CAORC-WARC Faculty Development Seminar.
