Arvie Smith
December 23, 2019
Arvie Smith makes large scale phantasmagoric oil paintings that reference everything from American racial stereotypes, contemporary politics, historical events, to narrative and art-historical tropes. Arvie, now an octogenarian, explained in a 2014 interview, "A long time ago, I wanted to just be an artist. Then I realized that this world was not going to let me be just an artist. So I said, "Why not? Why not talk about the things that are important to me?"
Best Man, oil on canvas, 2016
Arvie is currently in the middle of a trifecta of major exhibitions in the Pacific Northwest, including 2UP2Back at Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, 2UP2Back II coming this spring to the recently opened Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU, and a show at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem in January 2021. The recognition is much deserved for Smith, who in 1994 took a risk and accepted a teaching position in Portland at a time when he was already enjoying a successful career in New York. "Grace [Hartigan] said "You're making a BIG mistake, going back to Oregon." But after a twenty year teaching career and a groundswell of regional support, it’s clear his risk is paying dividends. And to achieve all of this as a black man in the Northwest is all the more remarkable. "You've got to understand, Oregon was organized, conceived as an all-white state." Smith iterates. "And it's still pretty much that way. So people of color are at a real disadvantage here."
Circus Circus on Fifth Avenue, oil on canvas, 2019
Circus Circus on Fifth Avenue (2019) is a ten feet wide diptych depicting rivaling factions of characters at a circus, segregated by skin color, launching bullets, arrows, and hateful looks at each other. The central figure, a familiar orange-faced fool, is led by a tiki torch wielding pinnochio. It's an overt tale of highly charged racial animus, and one that he does not shy away from telling his students. "At some point, we have to educate our kids that change is going to be difficult," he said, "because right after Martin Luther King, and I suspect right after Obama, you're going to see a backlash." Five years later, his words have proven prophetic.
Scarecrow, oil on canvas, 2016
The Truth Tellers, oil on canvas, 2019
Quick Step, oil on canvas, 2019
In Quick Step (2019) a highly caricaturized black dandy is seen spotlit on the dance floor, sweeping a blonde-haired beauty in a red dress right off her feet. Smith is poking at a stereotype of black men as overly sexual hedonists with huge penises here to take virginal white women. It's a stereotype that played a part in the brutal murder of 14 year old Emmet Till, and one that lives on in the overpolicing of young black boys and men. "I was doing some murals with some kids in juvenile hall," Smith says, "and all the kids are people of color. All these kids, Blacks and Latinos, committed all the crimes in Portland? That can't be right." Fortunately for Black Oregonians a recent court decision prevents routine traffic stops from being used as a pretext for unrelated lines of questioning, which we hope will help curtail PPB's racial bias problem.
Hands Up Don’t Shoot, oil on canvs, 2017
The Hustler, oil on canvas, 2019
If you're in Portland, definitely make an effort to see 2UP2Back at Disjecta. The large scale paintings are perfect for the cavernous space and allow you room to step back, move in, dance with each work. It's a weighty show that should challenge your ideologies. Go see it before February 2nd!
