Ed Smith

Ed Smith


Ed Smith was born in Naples Italy in 1959. He received his BFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his MFA from Brooklyn College CUNY. After working at Queens college in New York for 12 years Smith came south to teach at LSU, where he became fascinated by the Louisiana landscape; interested in the work of John James Audubon and intrigued by the intersection if wildlife and industry in South Louisiana. His paintings are about the results of the clash that occurs where nature and man collide. In 1979, Smith was one of the original crew members of the conservation ship, The Sea Shepard. Environmental concerns have played an important role in his work ever since.

Smith's work has been exhibited at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, The Islip Museum, Islip, New York, North Carolina Museum of Natural History in Raleigh, The Huntsville Museum in Alabama, The Walter Anderson Museum in Mississippi, The Contemporary Art Center in Mobile, Soren Christensen Gallery in New Orleans, Redbud Gallery in Houston, Clark Gallery in New York, Whitney Art Works in Portland, Maine, Dome Gallery in New York, among others. He is scheduled to have exhibitions at The Cape Cod Museum of Art in Massachusetts and The Appleton Museum in Florida.

He is represented exclusively by Soren Christensen Gallery in New Orleans and divides his time between Louisiana and Maine.

I paint large scale oil paintings, and use irony and metaphor in my depiction of birds and wildlife to address my political concerns, and also address the inherent difficulties that occur at the boundaries of the wild and developed world. My hope for my paintings is that they are visually appealing, intellectually stimulating, and tell a good story. - Smith, 2010