installation view
“My work is about simultaneously navigating the complex and contradictory narratives that Black people have to navigate in America, not just externally, but internally.” — Harold Smith, gallery talk, Nov. 9, Studios Inc
Harold Smith set the stage for a “70’s house party vibe” with bottles of Colt 45, Church’s Chicken, and Parliament-Funkadelic music playing at the opening reception of his solo exhibition, “Dr. Blackenstein’s Blacktacular Black Shack of Arts and Sciences,” culminating his three-year artist-in-residency at Studios Inc.
Smith’s talent for creating layered, intersensory environments is immediately palpable. His art explores the complexities of Black culture and identity within an array of work created during his residency, including painting, collage, mixed-media sculpture and a zine entitled “Thee Confessions of a Teenage Funkaholic,” containing an impassioned letter of encouragement to his 50-year-younger teenage self, along with a list of 10 learned truths, including “Blacula is actually a Love Story. Lawdhammercy is a high compliment. WE ARE ALL Complicit. Don’t let DEM STEEL Your Joy. We are the art in America.”
The show is a journey of time and space, showcasing Smith’s artistry, dynamic imagination and storytelling gifts. In his gallery talk, Smith described the quality of being “Blacktacular” as the ability to make lemonade out of lemons, make use of things discarded, and to make something out of bad situations.
Vintage furniture is arranged throughout the installation including desks, an organ, a piano, sofas, chairs, and tables. Scatterings of Smith’s short stories, family photos, papers and books, vintage issues of Life, Ebony and Jet, a chess set and materials from Smith’s personal archives are found on table and desk surfaces, offering glimpses into his youth and his interests, including his 30-year career as an educator.
Pivotal influences include Blaxploitation films of the 1970’s, Parliament-Funkadelic, and being born and raised in Kansas City. In his artist’s statement, Smith describes coming of age “as a Black kid from a blue collar home in the ‘70s,” and conjures sensory memories of fried fish from Johnny’s Fish Market at 10th and Walker; the smell of Afro Sheen at Johnson’s Barber Shop at 13th and Quindaro; and Saturday afternoons at the Cameo theater on Minnesota Avenue “to watch Cleopatra Jones, Willie Dynamite, Foxy Brown, Superfly and so many other classics.”
Smith’s expressionist, full-frontal portraits of Black men in which he utilizes clashing color, forceful gesture and sometimes layered collage and text, have garnered significant recognition. Nineteen portraits and mixed-media collages created from 2022-2024 from multiple series evoke riveting conflations of fractured identity, ambiguity, deep sadness and unflinching determination.
“Saint Blacula (The most misunderstood vampire of all time)” and “Saint Willie Dynamite (The Pimp with a heart of gold)” demonstrate the enduring influence of Blaxploitation films and Smith’s evolving understanding of their narratives. “Got Dayum Its Hotter Than Chicken Grease” and “Lawdhammercy (The Itis),” incorporate tropes and sayings from Black culture interspersing deeply evocative and layered portraits.
“(We are The) Art in America (Because fat meat is greasy)” is a haunting commentary on the pivotal, yet vastly under-recognized contributions and impact of African American art and culture on Western culture as a whole, and “Don’t Let Them Steal Your Joy” juxtaposes two ambiguous portraits upon a black ground, which Smith describes as “two sides of a person: the idealist and the realist.”
Smith’s short story, “When The Blackocalypse Began,” provides context for a series of mixed media sculptures titled “Artifacts from the art-based society that arose from the ashes of the Blackocalypse.” Smith imagines these pieces, created from scavenged mannequin busts and repurposed bicycle helmets cloaked with layers of found objects and metallic impasto, as existing in a post-apocalyptic, Mad-Max art world, discovered by aliens in 5,000 AD.
Born in 1962, Smith has an M.A.T. from Webster University, a B.S. in Computer Science from Union College, and an A.A. from Kansas City Kansas Community College. In 2022, Smith received a Charlotte Street Visual Arts Award and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. He was selected for the Art Omi International Artists Residency Program in 2023. Smith has exhibited at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the Lawrence Arts Center and many other venues. His work is in the permanent collection of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and numerous private collections. He is represented by Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City.
“Harold Smith: Dr. Blackenstein’s Blacktacular Black Shack of Arts and Sciences” continues at Studios Inc, 1708 Campbell St., through Dec. 21. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. Open 5 to 8 p.m. First Fridays. For more information 816.994.7134 or www.studiosinc.org.